Northern Ireland resume their Euro 2024 qualifying campaign when they take on Slovenia in Ljubljana on Thursday.
The match is part of an away double-header in Group H, with Michael O’Neill’s men travelling to Astana to face Kazakhstan at the weekend.
Here, the PA news agency looks at the key talking points ahead of Thursday’s match.
No end to injury woesMichael O’Neill has not had much luck on the injury front since his return to the Northern Ireland job in December. Key players Stuart Dallas, Steven Davis and Corry Evans have not been fit to play since last year, and the injury list goes on with the likes of Shane Ferguson, Jamal Lewis, Conor Bradley Shayne Lavery, Dale Taylor and Aaron Donnelly all sidelined, while Dan Ballard has reported to camp with a concern after Sunderland’s 5-0 win over Southampton.
Limited optionsO’Neill’s squad includes several players with limited or no experience at international level, leaving the manager to put some square pegs in round holes when it comes to naming a side. The loss of Lewis along with Ferguson means there is no naturally left full-back or wing-back in the squad, so although Bradley is out and Hume might fancy his favoured right wing-back role, chances are he will be on the left again. Josh Magennis and Conor Washington are back from injury, and may go straight back into the side after Lavery and Taylor were forced out.
Evans and CathcartAs young as this Northern Ireland side is in many departments, the centre of defence is still anchored by Jonny Evans and Craig Cathcart. However, there is a different concern with the two seasoned campaigners. Evans enjoyed a pre-season with Manchester United before signing a one-year contract with his boyhood club, but the 35-year-old’s second-half appearance as a substitute in Sunday’s loss at Arsenal was his first competitive football since Northern Ireland’s June qualifiers. Cathcart comes into these fixtures even more undercooked, having been without a club since he left Watford at the end of last season. The 34-year-old has been training with the Hornets but is bound to be short of match fitness. With an injury concern over Ballard, Northern Ireland are stretched at the back.
Group goalsWith so many senior players out and so many youngsters in, O’Neill said in June that qualifying was no longer the goal in this campaign, but the mood music has changed coming into this camp. O’Neill sounded a different tone when he announced his squad last month, and the players too have been talking about how two good results in this window could get them back in the mix before October’s double-header at Windsor Park. Whether they have the resources to do it remains to be seen.
Fine marginsNorthern Ireland have taken only three points from their opening four qualifiers, and those came in the opening fixture away to minnows San Marino. But while everything else has been a defeat, the losses to Denmark away and Finland and Kazakhstan in Belfast have all come by a 1-0 margin. Scoring has been a long-term problem for Northern Ireland, but they have remained defensively strong and will take confidence from that with more experienced strikers back in the fold.
Indonesia 0-4 Japan: Visitors stay unbeaten with rout
Japan continued their unbeaten start to World Cup qualifying with a 4-0 victory over Indonesia on Friday.
Two goals from the visitors in either half were enough to seal the three points and get them back to winning ways after a stalemate with Australia last time out.
Ragnar Oratmangoen should have put Indonesia ahead, but he hesitated one-on-one with the goalkeeper, and Japan did not look back after that. They got a bit of fortune with their first goal, Justin Hubner deflecting a cross into his own net in the 35th minute.
Takumi Minamino got their second just before the break, finishing off a pacy counter-attack by darting onto the end of Kaoru Mitoma’s cross to sweep it past Maarten Paes.
While there was not much the goalkeeper could do with that one, he was at fault for the third as he gifted the ball to Hidemasa Morita, who coolly picked out the bottom corner just after the break.
Yukinari Sugawara came off the bench to round off the scoring in the 69th minute. He raced down the right wing and instead of looking to his options, he rifled it in from a tight angle at the near post.
Japan are up to 13 points after five games, sitting top of Group C, while Indonesia are bottom, still in search of their first win.
Data Debrief: Clinically done
For a team still chasing their first win, Japan are probably not high on the list of opponents they would want to face, and Indonesia were undone by their visitors.
Hajime Moriyasu's side created 0.79 expected goals (xG) to Indonesia's 0.72, while they only had four more shots than their hosts (12 compared to eight).
Japan took their chances, and though the win margin may look harsh, they were deserving of the three points, having dominated throughout the game.
Jamaica 0-1 United States: Pepi give visitors advantage in Nations League quarter-final
Ricardo Pepi's first-half strike gave the United States a 1-0 advantage over Jamaica after the first leg of their Concacaf Nations League quarter-final.
The hosts saw a penalty saved in the first half before their frustrations were compounded late on thanks to Mason Holgate's red card.
The USA had the lead just five minutes in – having smothered a Jamaica attack at one end, the visitors caught them out with a pacy counter-attack, with Pepi sweeping it into the back of the net.
Shortly after, Shamar Nicholson was brought down by Matt Turner when he tried to take it around him, but the goalkeeper made amends, diving low to his right to deny Demarai Gray from 12 yards.
In the second half, Holgate was denied a tap-in by Yunus Musah before Turner scrambled to stop Leon Bailey's corner from nestling into the net as Jamaica searched for an equaliser.
With 86 minutes on the clock, Holgate received a second yellow card in just over 10 minutes for dragging Brandon Vazquez back, meaning he will miss the return leg in Missouri on Monday.
Data Debrief: Hitting the mark
Pepi got the all-important goal on Thursday, and is the fourth player to score 12 goals for the USA before turning 22 years old, joining Landon Donovan, Jozy Altidore and Christian Pulisic.
But it was perhaps Turner who actually had the most vital interventions; he has now saved three of the eight penalties he's faced for the USA, including two against Jamaica.
Mauricio Pochettino also could not have asked for a better result from his first competitive game in charge of the Stars and Stripes as he became just the third full-time manager to win his first competitive away match, joining Bob Bradley (2008) and Steve Sampson (1996).
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.
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