Ukraine 0-2 Northern Ireland: History created in Lyon

By Simon Wright – Follow me on Twitter @Siwri88

Northern Ireland remain in EURO 2016 after a huge performance in Lyon against Ukraine on Thursday afternoon.

Michael O’Neill’s side recovered from their opening Group C defeat to Poland in spectacular fashion, producing a much different performance to win 2-0 in driving rain in the French city.

The goals came from central defender Gareth McAuley and substitute Niall McGinn. The result was the country’s first win at a major international tournament since the 1982 World Cup finals.

For Ukraine, this defeat, coupled with the later stalemate between Germany and Poland means they become the first team to crash out of EURO 2016.

Bold changes

There was no doubt that Northern Ireland needed to improve on their opening showing, where they lacked any serious attacking guile against the Poles. O’Neill reacted to his by making five changes – the most of any coach between the first two games so far in the competition.

The changes were bold too. The likes of Stuart Dallas and Conor Washington came into the line-up. Kyle Lafferty made way as he continues to struggle with an injury he picked up last week in training.

From the outset, they looked like a different team compared to the one that featured at the weekend. If one team looked like scoring, it always looked like being Northern Ireland.

The goals finally arrived after the interval. Four minutes into the second half and McAuley connected perfectly with Oliver Norwood’s free-kick, powering a header into the net from close range. Despite a brief halt on the hour mark as hailstones started smashing down onto the Lyon turf, it didn’t affect the concentration of the Northern Ireland players.

In stoppage time, they could have gone for the corner flag to protect the lead, but they didn’t. McGinn, who plays his club football in Scotland for Aberdeen, tapped home after Andriy Pyatov had only parried a shot from skipper Steven Davis into his path.

The result means a point against world champions Germany should be enough to take Northern Ireland through into the last 16 of the competition. At 36-years-old, McAuley became the second oldest player to score in the history of the European Championships. He also became the first Northern Irish player to score in a major tournament since Colin Clarke netted against Spain in the 1986 World Cup in Mexico.  

Ukraine go home

Apart from a 20-minute spell in the first half of their match with Germany, Ukraine have generally disappointed in this competition and they never really got going here.

Jonny Evans had another magnificent game at the back for Northern Ireland

Michael McGovern dealt comfortably with anything he was forced to deal with, whilst McAuley and Jonny Evans (pictured) totally marked Andriy Yarmolenko and Yevhen Konoplyanka out of the game.

They have the indignity of being the first team to definitely leave the competition in the group stages and will now only be playing for pride against Poland next Tuesday.

Goalscoring legend Andriy Shevchenko will take over as manager in the summer. He will have a job on his hands to qualify them for the next World Cup because they’ve lacked team unity and team spirit throughout their two games in France so far.

My best three players of the match

Man of the Match: Gareth McAuley (Northern Ireland)

So he is 36-years-old now, but Gareth McAuley has demonstrated that age is no barrier for him. Still a consistent and regular starter for his club side, West Bromwich Albion, he will now be in Northern Irish folklore for becoming their first-ever European Championships goalscorer. It was a cracking header too.

2^nd: Jonny Evans (Northern Ireland)

He was asked to play out of his comfort zone by Michael O’Neill, but Evans, who had limited Robert Lewandowski in the first match, made Andriy Yarmolenko look a peripheral figure throughout. He is having an incredible tournament so far.

3^rd: Oliver Norwood (Northern Ireland)

Norwood looked nervy early on and gifted possession away on a number of occasions but settled down after half an hour, He produced a stunning free-kick for McAuley to head Northern Ireland into a deserved lead and grew into the game with every passing minute.