Northern Ireland 1-0 Luxembourg: O’Neill’s side end qualifying campaign with a win | OneFootball

Jamie Donley’s first international goal was enough to give Northern Ireland all three points as they finished off their World Cup qualifying campaign with a victory.

As it happened

In what was Donley’s second ever start on the international stage, the Tottenham Hotspur attacker, on loan at Stoke City, sealed all three points one minute from half time when his penalty cruised past Luxembourg keeper Anthony Moris. Northern Ireland headed into the game with third place in the group already secured and with full knowledge their route to the World Cup would be available via the play-offs they secured through the Nations League.

As such, manager Michael O’Neill reigned in the changes from Friday’s defeat to Slovakia, and Donley was one of the men brought in. The striker thought he’d put the hosts ahead in the 18th minute with a tidy finish in the bottom corner but fellow youngster Ethan Galbraith was judged to have been offside in the build-up.

Luxembourg, bottom of their group without a point to their name, grew into the game as the first half went on and Northern Irish goalkeeper Conor Hazard had to be alert to prevent Christopher Martins from giving the visitors a surprise lead before the half-hour mark. This was before Mathias Olesen whistled an effort past Hazard’s post as Luxembourg continued to threaten O’Neill’s side.

There was a distinct lack of intensity and quality throughout the contest, and the only goal of the game came just one minute before the half-time whistle, with Christopher Martins fouling Cieron Brown in the area before Donley converted the ensuing spot-kick.

O’Neill made changes at half time, resting Liverpool’s Conor Bradley whom he replaced with Portsmouth’s Terry Devlin, and there were further swaps five minutes later when Kilmarnock midfielder Brad Lyons limped off the field and had to be replaced by QPR’s Paul Smyth. With virtually nothing at stake and both managers managing their squad’s minutes there was a continuation of that absence of intensity in the second half. Isaac Price came closest to finding an opening in the second period, but his pair of tame efforts did little to unease Moris in goal.

Northern Ireland end qualifying in third place and are yet to find out their opponents for a play-off fixture in March. Luxembourg will have to wait once more for a shot at a major tournament, something they’ve never done before in their history.

The line-ups