O’Neill believes ‘we had a strong claim for a penalty’ in Italy 2-0 Northern Ireland | OneFootball

Northern Ireland head coach Michael O’Neill said that he was ‘proud’ of his young Northern Ireland team that lost 2-0 to Italy in the World Cup play-off semi-final on Thursday evening, but argued: ‘I think we had a strong claim for a penalty’.

Second-half goals from Sandro Tonali and Moise Kean handed Italy a 2-0 victory over their visitors from Northern Ireland in Bergamo on Thursday night, which means that Gennaro Gattuso’s side will now go on to face Bosnia and Herzegovina away from home on Tuesday night for a spot in the final World Cup tournament.

O’Neill reacts to Italy 2-0 Northern Ireland: ‘Strong claim for a penalty’

Italy are the highest-ranked nation in the World not to have qualified for the 2026 World Cup, which meant that they were the strong favourites at home against Northern Ireland, who were missing two of its key Premier League players in Conor Bradley and Dan Ballard and named a starting XI with an average age of 22.5 years.

“I’m very proud of the performance first of all, the players gave everything,” said O’Neill after full-time.

“I thought first half we were terrific in terms of our shape and our structure, we made it difficult for Italy. We had to defend corners, but we defended them extremely well.”

BRATISLAVA, SLOVAKIA – NOVEMBER 14: Michael O’Neill, Head Coach of Northern Ireland looks on prior to the FIFA World Cup 2026 qualifier match between Slovakia and Northern Ireland at Kosicka Futbalova Arena on November 14, 2025 in Bratislava, Slovakia. (Photo by David Balogh/Getty Images)

The Northern Ireland head coach does feel that his side should have been awarded a penalty against Italy on the night, though.

“I felt at times we could have been a little bit better on the ball, I thought we had opportunities where we maybe just overhit the pass or maybe made the wrong option at times. I think we had a strong claim for a penalty with the handball as well.

“Second half, we gave them a couple of moments that we created ourselves. The goal’s poor from our point of view. Terry (Devlin)’s out of shape and then Isaac (Price) is not in the position we’d really want him to be in. The ball’s headed down into a poor area and the one person you don’t want landing on the ball at that point in time is Tonali and it’s a strong hit.

BERGAMO, ITALY – MARCH 26: Sandro Tonali of Italy scores his team’s first goal during the FIFA World Cup 2026 European Qualifiers KO play-offs match between Italy and Northern Ireland at Stadio di Bergamo on March 26, 2026 in Bergamo, Italy. (Photo by Marco Luzzani/Getty Images)

“But again, I felt like there was always something for us in the game. The second goal obviously takes it away from you a little bit, but we had a couple of chances towards the end to try and make it a little bit tense, but look, it was a very young team tonight, I think the average age of the team was just 22. They gave everything, that’s all we can ask.

“I’m very proud of them and I think we showed that we’ve made huge strides as a team as well.”