What happened in Italy last night is bad news for West Brom, Portsmouth & Oxford United | OneFootball

The Northern Ireland reps at the struggling Championship clubs have no World Cup to look forward to this summer

Northern Ireland's bid to be in the World Cup for the first time in 40 years came to an end against Italy in Bergamo in their play-off semi-final.

It was always going to be an uphill struggle to topple Gli Azzurri, who themselves are aiming to end a World Cup appearance drought of their own, after missing the last two editions via the play-offs.

Unfortunately, Michael O'Neill's side weren't able to follow in the footsteps of Sweden or North Macedonia, as Italy overpowered Northern Ireland, winning 2-0 to set up a play-off final bout with Bosnia-Herzegovina, after they beat Wales on penalties in their semi-final.

O'Neill's focus now is on his other managerial role, after he was appointed manager of Blackburn Rovers in February, amidst their current Championship relegation battle.

It was an eyebrow-raising appointment at the time, as many felt that the juggling of both roles would not only see his focus distracted by a potential World Cup in the summer, if Northern Ireland were successful in these play-offs, but it would also add an incentive for those in the Championship who represent the Green and White Army to impress the Blackburn boss.

Relegation rivals now have no World Cup to look forward to in the summer for Northern Ireland

When looking at Northern Ireland's starting line-up for their game against Italy on Thursday night, the likes of Oxford United's Brodie Spencer and Jamie Donley, West Brom's Isaac Price and Portsmouth's Terry Devlin all started, while Oxford's Ciaron Brown was on the bench.

Given that this was easily Northern Ireland's most important game in their modern history, it would mean that the players who started are among Michael O'Neill's better players, in his eyes.

Therefore, if these players helped shoot the Green and White Army to a rare World Cup appearance, they'd be doing everything they can in the final seven or eight games of the current Championship campaign to maintain their place, while Brown and co would be looking to force their way into starting contention.

And, given that Oxford, West Brom and Portsmouth are all battling with Blackburn to avoid relegation, this could have come at a detriment to Rovers' own survival chances.

In a normal situation, they'd be upping their game to impress their national team manager. However, when they know that their national team manager will also have an eye on their games, anyway, as it affects his current domestic club, there would be an added incentive to do so, and especially if they're playing Blackburn, too.

We've already seen this theory come into fruition, too, as, when Blackburn travelled to Oxford on March 11 in a massive relegation six-pointer, Donley was the man who netted the only goal in the game.

At the time, that dragged the Yellows to within a point of Michael O'Neill's side, but there must have been some slight happiness in the Rovers' dugout that the Northern Irishman excelled.

With Blackburn still to play West Brom on Easter Monday, you'd imagine that Price would be looking to put on a show in front of O'Neill, and while not connected to the relegation battle, Shea Charles would have been doing the same when Rovers travel to Southampton in the penultimate game of the campaign.

Now, there's less of an added incentive, which can only benefit Blackburn in this scenario.

Non-Northern Irish Blackburn Rovers fans will be quietly delighted with Italy's play-off win

We've also seen in the past that a failure to qualify for a big tournament via the play-offs can be damaging to a player's confidence for the remainder of the campaign.

Non-Northern Irish Blackburn fans may be happy that the Green and White Army were eliminated from World Cup contention, as not only will it mean that Michael O'Neill won't have that distraction going into the final seven games of the season, but it could also mean a drop in form for the likes of Price and Donley, two influential players playing for their relegation rivals.

If this disappointment can shake their confidence ahead of a vital run-in, it could give Blackburn a slight advantage.

Right now, the focus at Ewood Park is on staying in the Championship by any means necessary, and while the larger footballing world was disappointed that the underdogs couldn't topple the four-time World Cup champions, they'll be hoping that this could perhaps give them an advantage in the race to stay in the second-tier.