Michael O’Neill believes Northern Ireland still have everything to play for in their bid to reach Euro 2024 even as injuries hit hard during the qualifying campaign.
With a trip to Denmark and a home match against Kazakhstan up next, O’Neill has named a 28-man squad that includes five uncapped players and a total of 15 with fewer than 10 caps.
Although Jonny Evans returns from the hamstring injury that prevented him from adding to his 100 caps in March, Steven Davis, Stuart Dallas, Corry Evans, Liam Boyce, Josh Magennis, Conor Washington and Shane Ferguson remain sidelined, forcing O’Neill to rely on youth.
When O’Neill returned to the Northern Ireland job in December there was an opportunity to capitalise on a favourable qualifying draw, and although that remains possible, the absence of his most experienced players is making it a much tougher ask.
Northern Ireland began with a 2-0 win in San Marino in their group opener, but a 1-0 home defeat to Finland highlighted the difficulties.
Asked if the job had been harder than envisaged, O’Neill said: “I suppose it depends on what the expectation is for this campaign going forward as well. I still think we have got everything to play for in this campaign.
“The next two games are going to be very important and then obviously we have a double-header away in September (against Slovenia and Kazakhstan) which will be difficult, so we are going to ask a lot of a number of young players in this group.
“The senior players that we have with us, we really can’t afford to lose any more. I think we have eight players out who could all equally play for us, who have all been established players with a high number of caps.
“That is the situation that unfortunately we just have to deal with.”
It has meant O’Neill has been juggling the need for results with the need to nurture young players, with Conor Bradley and Shea Charles in particular asked to take on significant roles.
“It is a different approach from taking a team and saying ‘Right, how do we qualify? What is our route to qualification? How do we get enough points?’” O’Neill added.
“Of course, that is always in the background but I think it is more about the integration of the younger players and they will have to learn very quickly on the job if we are going to take that next step.”
O’Neill has hosted a series of training camps with senior players and under-21s in recent weeks, aiming to keep fitness levels high after the end of domestic campaigns while running the rule over younger faces.
Nottingham Forest defender Aaron Donnelly, West Ham teenager Callum Marshall and Larne forward Lee Bonis have all used the opportunity to earn their first senior call-ups.
While the return of Evans is a major boost, the Leicester defender will come into camp dealing with the disappointment of relegation and facing uncertainty over his future.
“He is very disappointed for them to go down and he is in a situation where he is out of contract as well,” O’Neill said. “I am sure if he was playing his football elsewhere next season he would have liked to have left Leicester in a slightly different way but he was just unfortunate this season.
“Probably, I think by his own admission, he pushed very hard to get back because I think he does make a difference to Leicester’s team. I think you saw that in the final three games that he was fit to play in. But I know he is keen to be a part of this squad and play.
“It is big for us to have him back, obviously we missed him in March and I believe that Jonny still has a lot of football left in him, both with Northern Ireland and wherever he chooses to play his football next season.”
I was a mess – David Beckham lays bare pain he suffered after World Cup red card
David Beckham has revealed he still cannot forgive himself for the abuse his family suffered amid the fallout from his red card at the 1998 World Cup, which left him a “mess”.
A new Netflix documentary series titled ‘Beckham’ is set for release on Wednesday, looking back on the former Manchester United and Real Madrid midfielder’s career as well as his marriage to Spice Girls singer and fashion designer Victoria.
In episode two, titled ‘Seeing Red’, Beckham, now 48, reflected on the “stupid mistake” which changed his life after he was sent off for kicking the back of Diego Simeone’s leg during the last-16 clash against Argentina in Saint-Etienne.
England went on to lose after a penalty shootout and Beckham found himself centre of a backlash – including a pub hanging up an effigy of the midfielder, who received a hostile reception from rival fans around the country when he returned to action for United the following season.
In the documentary, Victoria Beckham said the continued abuse left her husband “absolutely clinically depressed” as the then 23-year-old tried to deal with the fallout alongside becoming a father for the first time in March 1999.
Beckham admitted the saga “took a toll on me that I never knew myself”.
He said: “I wish there was a pill you could take which could erase certain memories. I made a stupid mistake. It changed my life.
“We were in America (on holiday after the World Cup), just about to have our first baby, and I thought, ‘we will be fine. In a day or two people will have forgotten’.”
Beckham added: “I don’t think I have ever talked about it, just because I can’t. I find it hard to talk through what I went through because it was so extreme.
“Wherever I went, I got abused every single day – to walk down the street and to see people look at you in a certain way, spit at you, abuse you, come up to your face and say some of the things they said, that is difficult.
“I wasn’t eating, I wasn’t sleeping. I was a mess. I didn’t know what to do.”
Beckham added: “It brought a lot of attention that I would never wish on anyone, let alone my parents, and I can’t forgive myself for that.
“That is the tough part of what happened, because I was the one that made the mistake.
“It is only now that I am 47 years old, it is now that I beat myself up about it (still).
“When I have gone through difficult moments, I was able to block it out, but inside it killed me.”
Beckham spoke of the support he received from then Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson and the club as he looked to focus on his football.
“That was the only thing I could control – once I was on the pitch, then I felt safe,” Beckham said.
“Anytime I was kicked during that season, it was like the (opposition team) had got two goals.”
Beckham added: “As horrible as it was to look up to Victoria in the stand (getting that abuse), it was the one thing which spurred me on.”
The Netflix documentary also charts Beckham’s triumphant end to the 1998-99 season, which culminated with United having won the Premier League, FA Cup and a memorable Champions League final against Bayern Munich in Barcelona.
With Paul Scholes and Roy Keane suspended, Beckham played an integral role in United’s comeback win, which was secured by two goals in stoppage time.
Reflecting on the match, Ferguson said: “With David, that night there was something inside him saying, ‘I am not going to let this happen’. It was a personal thing that he had in him, that stubbornness and determination.”
Beckham’s former United and England team-mate Gary Neville was an executive producer of the Netflix documentary.
Neville recalled the way he and Beckham were “absolutely destroying teams” down the right flank for United.
“He was with his crossing. I was supporting him in a way which was to be fair, I would say I was a side dish really. Not the beef. I was the mustard on the side,” Neville said.
“I was subservient because I needed David to go and do something magical. He was practicing free-kicks and I was practicing throw-ins.”
Neville added: “It was telepathic on the pitch. Off the pitch as well, I knew where he was in his mind – it was not enough for him, he wanted to be more than a football player.”
Mykhailo Mudryk trying hard to adapt to Chelsea culture after difficult start
Chelsea boss Mauricio Pochettino says Mykhailo Mudryk is making a concerted effort to adapt to life in England and fulfil his potential as a “unique” player after an indifferent start to his career at Stamford Bridge.
The Ukrainian moved from Shakhtar Donetsk in January for a fee that could rise to £88million, but he has featured only inconsistently in the starting XI under successive managers and is yet to score his first Blues goal.
He arrived having missed a significant amount of playing time during the previous 12 months after the war in Ukraine caused the suspension of the domestic league, and at the time of Chelsea’s bid he had made only 44 professional appearances for Shakhtar.
It is the first time that the 22-year-old has lived outside of Ukraine, with Pochettino having previously made the point that young players in particular require time to settle into a new culture when moving abroad.
Mudryk has started each of Chelsea’s last three games and has shown flashes of promising in short bursts, including the beginnings of a burgeoning on-field relationship with new striker Nicolas Jackson.
And Pochettino said the winger is making the effort that he expects of his players to integrate as he waits for his expensively assembled side to gel.
“The life of these guys, when they are so young, (it) changed,” said the manager, whose squad with an average age of just over 23 is the youngest in the Premier League this season.
“You pay big money, big change form where they came. Also it’s not about to arrive and to perform when you are young.
“It’s about to adapt, it’s about to help them to settle. Then the most difficult thing is to understand what these guys need to settle and to feel comfortable and to express their talent.
“If you ask me about Misha, he’s a very talented player of course, but you need to go with him very slowly. Cultural and everything is completely different to Latin people, from different countries or part of the world.
“He’s now trying to be more open, to adapt and be more involved in every situation, not only on the field but outside also. I think he’s doing a massive effort to try to integrate himself and to understand better what it means to play like a team.
“He’s unique. I can’t find a player to say he is similar, I can’t remember one. It’s a good challenge for him, and it’s a good challenge for us.”
The manager again refused to blame injuries for his team’s slow start to the season, with as many as 11 players likely to be missing when Chelsea face Fulham at Craven Cottage on Monday in search of just their second league win of the campaign.
There were three players aged 19 or under with no first-team experience named on the bench when the team drew at Bournemouth two weeks ago, and since then Ben Chilwell’s name has been added to an extensive injury list after he limped out of last week’s win over Brighton with a hamstring problem.
“I cannot use the excuse of injuries,” said Pochettino. “The performances have been good. We cannot blame injuries, I think it’s not fair. We played well in every single game and we deserved more, but for different reasons, we didn’t score and we were not clinical enough.
“But we cannot blame injuries. Of course it’s a factor that we need to improve. When you have your whole squad, you increase the level of the team. You put pressure on the players that play because it’s another player waiting for your place. We’re not winning the games that we deserve, but not because of injuries.”
Atalanta and Juventus share stalemate as Atletico Madrid pull off crazy comeback
Juventus were held to a frustrating goalless Serie A draw by Atalanta with only one point still separating both sides in the table.
Nicolo Fagioli and Moise Kean tested Juan Musso in the first half, but Atalanta had plenty of opportunities after the break to earn a winner as Wojciech Szczesny got his fingertips to Luis Muriel’s free-kick before Teun Koopmeiners had two good shots in the closing stages.
Bologna sit three points below Atalanta in the table after they beat Empoli 3-0, with Riccardo Orsolini starring after earning his first Serie A hat-trick, helping his side to their second win this season.
Roma also earned their second win of the season as goals from Romelu Lukaku and Lorenzo Pellegrini secured a 2-0 win against Frosinone, while Alan Matturro’s own goal salvaged a point for Udinese, who drew 2-2 with Genoa.
Albert Gudmundsson’s brace gave Genoa the advantage before Matturro turned the ball into his own net in stoppage time and Sandi Lovric was dismissed just minutes later.
Angel Correa’s brace helped Atletico Madrid come from behind to earn a 3-2 win against LaLiga rivals Cadiz.
Atletico faced an uphill task after Lucas Pires and Roger Marti put the visitors in front.
However, Correa helped Diego Simeone’s side to three points either side of Nahuel Molina’s goal and they move into fourth.
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They sit four points clear of Real Betis, who beat Valencia 3-0 thanks to goals from Assane Diao, Marc Roca and Abde Ezzalzouli, while Jose Arnaiz Diaz and Ante Budimir’s goals were enough for Osasuna to beat Alaves 2-0.
At the bottom of the table, Granada came from behind to draw 3-3 with fellow strugglers Almeria.
Colombian forward Luis Suarez wreaked havoc, scoring a hat-trick within the final six minutes of the first half before Granada came back into the game with Myrto Uzuni scoring in the 86th minute to rescue a point.
Lyon’s winless run continued in Ligue 1 after they were beaten 2-0 by high-flying Reims.
Goals from Marshall Munetsi and Yunis Abdelhamid handed Lyon their fifth league loss of the season and they sit rock bottom of the table.
Reims’ win sees them close in on Brest, who missed the chance to go top of the table after drawing 0-0 with Nice.
Lille beat Havre 2-0 to go sixth in the table, while Toulouse returned to winning ways with a 3-0 win against Metz and Akor Adams’ brace helped Montpellier beat Lorient 3-0.
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Rennes ended their run of five consecutive league draws after beating Nantes 3-1 to move into sixth.
In the Bundesliga, Darmstadt earned their first win of the season after beating Werder Bremen 4-2.
Die Lilien scored twice in each half and held off a potential late comeback from Bremen with two quick goals in the second half.
Vincenzo Grifo and Philipp Lienhart’s goals were enough for Freiburg to beat Augsburg 2-0 in the other game on Sunday.
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