Toothless Northern Ireland were stunned as Kazakhstan substitute Abat Aimbetov struck at the death to snatch a 1-0 Euro 2024 qualifying victory at Windsor Park.
As Northern Ireland had been piling forward in search of a late winner themselves, Aimbetov broke from his own half, riding Craig Cathcart’s challenge and capitalising when a sliding Paddy McNair got in the way of Ciaron Brown, slotting the ball past Bailey Peacock-Farrell to stun the home crowd.
Michael O’Neill had said he was not thinking about qualifying for next summer’s finals in the wake of Friday’s 1-0 defeat in Denmark, and this result is another huge blow as they have only three points, earned against minnows San Marino, from their opening four games.
When Northern Ireland left Copenhagen after Friday’s 1-0 defeat there was optimism about the way they had battled, only denied a late equaliser by a marginal offside, but the mood was very different here as the final whistle was greeted with boos.
Northern Ireland’s inability to overcome a side 50 places below them in the rankings at home showed the limitations of this young squad, robbed of experience by injuries to senior players.
Another blank means Northern Ireland have only scored two in their last nine home matches in qualifying campaigns, with the lack of quality in the final third thwarting their ambitions.
O’Neill had spoken about the difficulty of adjusting his side’s mindset from the predominantly defensive outlook they had in Copenhagen on Friday to playing on the front foot at home, but even though they kept Kazakhstan pegged back for long patches, there were only occasional threats.
Cathcart returned from the back injury that kept him out on Friday but there was no Conor Bradley, sidelined after hyperextending his knee in Copenhagen, and his attacking threat was missed.
Trai Hume, switched to right back in place of Bradley, sent an early shot over from the edge of the box before Dion Charles, back in ahead of Shayne Lavery, failed to keep a shot down after being played in by Shea Charles.
But arguably the best chance of the half belonged to Kazakhstan as Maxim Samorodov raced away from McNair and turned inside Hume, only to drag his shot wide of the post from eight yards with just Peacock-Farrell to beat.
Northern Ireland responded well. Isaac Price’s shot from the edge of the box deflected off Abzal Beysebekov, looping away from the goalkeeper and heading just wide of the post.
From the resulting corner, McNair headed back into the danger zone but Cathcart could not keep it down from only four yards out.
The tempo soon dipped, Northern Ireland seemingly struggling for new ideas, and they did not threaten again until the 44th minute. Dion Charles stood the ball up for George Saville but the Millwall midfielder, still without an international goal after 46 caps, headed over from close range.
The half ended with Baktiyor Zainutdinov flashing a shot wide while surrounded by Northern Ireland defenders.
Northern Ireland’s frustrations continued after the break. Saville flashed the ball across the face of goal early in the half – the cross only needed a touch but there was nobody there to add it.
Price had the chance to release Dion Charles as Northern Ireland tried to break from a Kazakhstan corner, but he played the ball behind the Bolton forward when there was half a pitch to run in to.
The Windsor Park atmosphere was flat, the tiny pocket of Kazakhstan fans audible over the murmurs coming from the Kop.
Conor McMenamin replaced Jonny Evans, soon seen with an ice pack on his shoulder, and more attacking reinforcements came in the shape of Lavery and Dale Taylor, but besides an angled McMenamin shot tipped over by Igor Shatskiy, there was little to excite the crowd before Aimbetov’s killer late blow.
Ranieri comes out of retirement to take charge of Roma
Claudio Ranieri has come out of retirement to take charge of Roma until the end of the season.
The Italian retired in May, calling time on a career in which he famously led Leicester City to a shock Premier League title in 2016 and coached a host of teams from Europe's top leagues, including Chelsea, Juventus, Atletico Madrid, Inter and Monaco.
Ranieri, who last coached Cagliari in Serie A, returns for a third stint in charge of Roma, with whom he came agonisingly close to winning the Serie A title in his first spell between 2009 and 2011.
Across his previous two spells, the 73-year-old managed 96 games in all competitions, registering 53 wins, with a win percentage of 55.21%.
"Roma is pleased to announce that Claudio Ranieri is the new Technical Manager of the First Team," Roma said in a statement.
"At the end of the season he will take on a senior managerial role, he will be an advisor to the ownership for all sporting matters of the club.
"The search for a new coach will continue in the coming months and Claudio will also have a say in this decision."
Ranieri replaces Juric, who was sacked after Roma lost 3-2 at home against Bologna on Sunday, leaving them languishing in 12th place in the Serie A standings.
Juric, who won just four of his 12 games in charge of the club, was Roma's second coach to be fired this season, with Daniele De Rossi being sacked in September.
According to reports in Italian media, Roma found it difficult to sign a replacement for the Croatian before settling on Ranieri, with former Italy coach Roberto Mancini and Maurizio Sarri among the preferred candidates.
Ranieri's first game will be away to league leaders Napoli on November 24.
Real Madrid hit Twente for seven, five-star Wolfsburg also win big
Real Madrid had six different goalscorers as they trounced Twente 7-0 in the Women's Champions League on Wednesday, while Wolfsburg beat Galatasaray 5-0.
Signe Bruun opened the scoring three minutes into the Group B encounter at the Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano, then Maria Mendez's header gave Madrid a 2-0 half-time lead.
Madrid, who had won one and lost one of their opening two games in the tournament, got a third through Naomie Feller five minutes into the second half, then Caroline Weir made it 4-0 with a brilliant free-kick.
Mendez headed home her second of the encounter shortly after the hour mark, while Oihane Hernandez and Carla Camacho got on the scoresheet late on to complete the rout.
The victory took Madrid second in the Group B standings ahead of Chelsea's trip to Celtic.
Wolfsburg were also convincing victors in Group A, getting off the mark for this season's competition as Rebecka Blomqvist scored a hat-trick in their 5-0 thrashing of Galatasaray.
The Bundesliga side – who failed to pick up a point or score a goal in their opening two matches – had a narrow 1-0 lead at half-time through Joelle Wedemeyer, before Blomqvist took centre-stage in the second period.
She tapped home after Janina Minge struck the crossbar, then added her second goal in the 77th minute and her third six minutes into stoppage time.
Vivien Endemann powered home a fifth for Wolfsburg one minute later, as they provisionally moved within three points of Lyon and Roma ahead of their meeting.
Taylor pleased with City's physical test during Hammarby win
Manchester City head coach Gareth Taylor was pleased with how his team stood up to the physical challenge of Hammarby in their 2-0 Champions League victory on Tuesday.
City's win extended their unbeaten start to the season, having won every game in all competitions following a 2-2 draw against Arsenal on opening day.
“Difficult game for us, physical challenge, a physical team in Hammarby. I think they outnumber us a little bit in terms of size, considering when you look at our midfield. But I thought the girls handled it really well," Taylor said after the game
“I thought we dominated the game. In the early parts we were just a little bit off in our final action. We just needed to speed up a little bit in terms of being on the end of it, and we spoke about that at half-time, and we score with Laura getting into that type of position we’d been talking about.
“[The physicality was something] we were prepared for, but dealing with it is a different thing. Having Bunny [Khadija Shaw] and Alanna [Kennedy] on the pitch, two of our more physical players, is really important, particularly for set-plays.
“At 1-0 we were defending a couple of scenarios like that, Yama [Ayaka Yamashita] making a really good save at one point. Then Aoba [Fujino] got the goal that maybe allowed us to change things up a little bit more, get some people off that we’d like to manage.
“I think the girls have dealt with it really well tonight. We expected it, we thought it would be difficult, and they rose to the challenge.”
The victory leaves City top of their Champions League group with a 100% record after three matches, three points above second-placed Barcelona.
Taylor had made changes to City's starting XI, with Lauren Hemp among the trio to drop out from the weekend and she did not feature in the squad. Ahead of their weekend game against Chelsea, who are second in the WSL, Taylor explained the reasoning behind Hemp's absence.
“We’ve just got an issue with Lauren that we just need to analyse a little bit further, that’s all," he said.
“It’s something that potentially happened in the Palace game [on 3 November]. She was able to play in the Tottenham game [last Friday] but wasn’t able to tonight, so we’ll just take a little bit longer to assess and find out more.
“Hopefully [she can play against Chelsea]. There’s an opportunity there, we’ll just have to take a moment tomorrow, have a good conversation and find out where we’re at with the medical staff.”
SportsMax is the Caribbean sports channel of choice, committed to providing sporting content of the highest quality to the Caribbean, delivered by a team of highly innovative, passionate and qualified professionals.
(876) 619-7629
digitalmedia@sportsmax.tv
