5 days ago
8
The times are changing for Northern Ireland.
Missing the injured Paddy McNair and with Josh Magennis starting amongst the substitutes, this was the first time since their last appearance at a major tournament in 2016 to not feature a single player from it in the starting eleven.
As he nears the completion of 24 months since returning to job, Michael O'Neill's overhaul of players from that memorable first campaign is clear to see.
The professional manner of his side's 2-0 victory over Belarus following their far more devastating 5-0 win against Bulgaria last month shows what the future hold with his new, young crop of NI players.
For a side that played 12 Nations League matches before winning one, Northern Ireland now sit top of Nations League C Group 3 ahead of their final game against Luxembourg, where they only need a draw to secure promotion to League B.
And O'Neill has been delighted with the improvement of what is now a fairly settled squad, particularly in the last 12 months considering the experience they have lost.
"[Euro 2016] was eight years ago and that shows the transition in the squad," he said.
"We’ve lost a lot of experienced players in last 18 months, but we have a lot of good young players we need to invest in now."
Northern Ireland's upturn in fortunes this year were actually sparked by a shock 2-0 home win against Denmark last November, a victory that was a positive way to round off a disappointing Euro 2024 campaign.
Following on from that, the foundations have been laid this year for them to be competitive in their World Cup qualifying group next year.
Of their nine games in 2024 they have won five, drawn two and lost two, keeping six clean sheets in those fixtures, and O'Neill believes that the Euro 2024 campaign was a painful learning curve that has benefited his side in the long run.
"If you look back in Euro 2024 qualifying, we lost three games 1-0 at home, Slovenia, Finland and Kazakhstan, we learnt a lot from those and I learnt that we couldn’t play as open, that we need to play as a back three," O'Neill explained.
"We were asking a lot of Jonny Evans and Craig Cathcart, and our younger players weren't ready at the time.
"The Denmark game was important and slowly from there we have been able to build and they have had great experiences the last 12 months and that will prepare them for the bigger challenges that lie ahead."
A sign of the improvement from the young squad even from a month ago was their second half display against Belarus at home.
In the away game in Hungary, Northern Ireland started the first half well, squandered chances and then ran out of steam in the second period as they were held to a frustrating stalemate.
At Windsor Park however, they raced out of the blocks in the second half after a frustrating first period, scoring five minutes after half-time through Daniel Ballard with Dion Charles adding a second from the spot.
O'Neill was delighted that they did not let their frustrations boil over as they saw out a comfortable win that puts them in the box seat to win the group.
"The frustration you could feel it creeping in, we had control of the game, but we weren’t maximising it but second half when you score the game changes, and I thought we managed it very well," he continued.
"Second half, we started really well from the outset, how we pressed and won the ball back we let them know we were going to be all over them with physical pressure."
Now another step on the ladder for this improving young side will be winning away in the Nations League, something they have not managed this campaign so far, but with Luxembourg to come on Monday, they have the opportunity to rectify that.
"We want to go try win the game, we haven’t won away from home so the game is important in terms of showing that we can win away from home."
