{"id":42103,"date":"2025-11-17T23:51:58","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T23:51:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/?p=42103"},"modified":"2025-11-17T23:51:58","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T23:51:58","slug":"cn970x1n28roat_mediumrssat_campaignrss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/2025\/11\/17\/cn970x1n28roat_mediumrssat_campaignrss\/","title":{"rendered":"Northern Ireland 1-0 Luxembourg: NI enter play-offs with &#8216;a lot of optimism&#8217; &#8211; Michael O&#8217;Neill"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">In a side that was already missing key players such as the Charles brothers, Shea and Pierce, and the suspended Daniel Ballard, youth got the opportunity to shine in the final qualifier, which was a dead rubber after Friday&#8217;s defeat by Slovakia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Given they were at risk of suspension, Trai Hume and Justin Devenny were given the evening off, and the talismanic Conor Bradley was withdrawn at half-time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Jamie Donley will get the headlines after his first international goal, but there was a strong first start for Jamie McDonnell, while Ruairi McConville was again commanding in defence and teenager Patrick Kelly made his senior debut.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;We obviously had to make a lot of changes to the team. If you look at the players we used tonight, five of the players are under 21, so I think that&#8217;s really positive for us,&#8221; O&#8217;Neill said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Luxembourg are a good team. The results in this campaign are probably a little bit harsh on them, and their performances have been good.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;They&#8217;ve not been beaten easily in any of the games, so we take a lot from the fact that we beat them 3\u20131 away and 1\u20130 at home. A clean sheet was a positive, and a lot of good performances as well.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n#Northern #Ireland #Luxembourg #enter #playoffs #lot #optimism #Michael #ONeill<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a side that was already missing key players such as the Charles brothers, Shea and Pierce, and the suspended&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42104,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mzansi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42103"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42103\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42105,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42103\/revisions\/42105"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}