NI v Denmark(20/11/2023)

GOOD EVENING Welcome to the National Football Stadium at Windsor Park for our final senior men’s international of 2023, and of course our final involvement in UEFA Euro 2024.

Congratulations to Denmark, our opponents tonight, who secured their ticket to the finals in Germany on Friday evening when they beat Slovenia at home. We would love to be in their position, but it was not to be for us this time. No-one would disagree with me when I say that we are very disappointed to be in the position we are in this evening, with seven defeats from nine matches in Group H. However, this shows very starkly that international football is getting ever more competitive and we have work to do in order to get back to the standard we have set ourselves for both senior men’s and senior women’s competitions - which is to challenge every time and qualify every other time. Looking back over the Euro 2024 qualification campaign there were a couple of sliding doors moments where if things had gone our way the momentum would perhaps have carried us further forward. I’m thinking of our opening home match against Finland in March where we had many chances to score but ended up losing by a single goal. In the following match away in Copenhagen the referee took a full six minutes to find a VAR camera angle which declared Callum Marshall’s injury time equaliser against Denmark offside. If those moments had been for us, we would have started with seven points from nine instead of

just three, and the course of the campaign could have been very different. As it stands Slovenia and Kazakhstan have taken advantage of our performances and play their own winner takes all game tonight for the second automatic qualification place. So in 2024 we need to regroup, reset, regain confidence and start to move forward again. This time last year we brought Michael O’Neill back for his second spell as our senior men’s international manager and we have full confidence in him as we embark upon a year where we will play friendly games in the first half of the year (March and June) followed by a UEFA Nations League campaign starting in September. Now is the time for us to show our support for our team as we endeavour this evening to restore some pride with a good result against our Danish opponents. Let’s be positive and give everyone our full backing. I hope you enjoy the game.

PATRICK NELSON CHIEF EXECUTIVE IRISH FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION

IRISHFA.COM

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