Northern Ireland v Luxembuourg (05/09/2024)

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MARSHALL GILLESPIE

Midfielder George Saville earned his 50th cap for Northern Ireland in a UEFA Euro 2024 qualifier against Finland last year. Here Marshall Gillespie charts his international career to date.

In total George has played 3465 minutes in his 51 games for his country. The majority of those minutes have been in Euro qualifiers – 1365 – while 939 have come in Nations League games, 633 in friendly matches and 537 in World Cup qualifiers.

Saville, whose grandmother was from Enniskillen, was given his full international debut by Michael O’Neill when he came on as a substitute to replace Corry Evans 10 minutes from time in a 3-1 World Cup qualifying defeat to Germany at the National Football Stadium at Windsor Park in October 2017. At the time he was the 18th player that Michael O’Neill had given a debut to and the 723rd to be capped by Ireland/ Northern Ireland.

During his seven-year stint as a full international Saville has been booked on 10 occasions. His first yellow card came in October 2018 in a 2-0 Nations League defeat in Bosnia and Herzegovina. His last caution in a Northern Ireland game came in last November’s memorable 2-0 victory over Denmark at the National Stadium.

George Saville has not managed to score in his 51 international appearances to date, making him one of only eight outfield players to win more than half a century of caps never to find the net for Northern Ireland. The other seven are: Mal Donaghy 96 caps Chris Baird 79 David McCreery 67 Nigel Worthington 66 Ollie Norwood 57 Damien Johnson 56 Stephen Craigan 54

Saville has started 39 of his 51 appearances for his country, being substituted in 21 of them. He has only been an unused substitute on one occasion. George’s full playing record at senior international level is: P W D L W% D% L% 51 15 8 28 29 16 55

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