Northern Ireland on course for playoffs as they ease past Norway

Northern Ireland 2 Norway 0

Northern Ireland remain on the road to Russia – so shouted the man into the Tannoy at the end of another productive night at Windsor Park.

Via goals from Nottingham Forest’s Jamie Ward and QPR’s Conor Washington, Northern Ireland are back in second place in Group C, and if there is realism about catching Germany, there is a playoff spot to aim for.

Michael O’Neill’s unrelenting men are on target. Once again led by captain Steven Davis, the Irish made Lars Lagerback’s debut as Norway manager one to forget. O’Neill’s team have now not lost in Belfast in a competitive match since 2013 against Portugal.

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Cristiano Ronaldo scored a hat-trick that night. As the names of the scorers here prove, O’Neill has not such superstar at his disposal, but he has fashioned a formidable team. Like their manager, they remain under-rated.

Norway are not the force of old – they beat Brazil at France 98 – and the days of turning up to Windsor Park and winning comfortably with names such as Bjornebye, Solskjaer and Flo have gone. The last time they had lost to Northern Ireland was in 1975.

The Norway of 2017 arrived in Belfast with one win in four group games and that was at home to San Marino. Even that victory was disappointing, so that Per-Mathias Hogmo lost his job.

Five absentees

The canny Lagerback has come as replacement but this was his introduction and he immediately had five absentees from the last game to cope with – two retirements, two injuries and a suspension. He has had no time to bed in, yet after a few days with his new squad at Fulham’s Motspur Park training ground, he had to formulate a way to keep Norway in contention in Group C.

All teams are vying for second place and a playoff spot, but Lagerback knew that defeat would realistically leave Northern Ireland too far ahead to be caught. As for O’Neill, his players will have known before kick-off that the Czech Republic’s 6-0 trouncing of San Marino had pushed them down to third in the group.

But O’Neill had talked in the build-up about the strength of “will”, as opposed to the cleverness of tactics, and Northern Ireland demonstrated it against opponents who were physical from the beginning.

That came after a heartfelt minute’s applause in memory of Ryan McBride. Windsor Park paid a sincere tribute.

The home team were then faced instantly with Lagerback’s first innovation as Norway manager – the Icelandic long throw. Three were hurled in towards the giant Alexander Soderlund, just as Iceland did last summer under Lagerback.

But Gareth McAuley and co dealt with these and at the other end made a scoring start through Ward. Despite his coy dismissal of tactics, O’Neill had selected Chris Brunt more centrally than usual. Brunt had Stuart Dallas to his left in a five-man midfield and that enabled Brunt to get further forward than usual. This the West Brom man did to some effect in the first attack.

Advanced to the edge of the visitors’ box, Brunt used his gifted left foot to send in a cross that might have been aimed high but which skimmed along the turf to Ward.

Perfect start

Back at Nottingham Forest after a loan spell at Burton, Ward’s first touch took him away from Even Hovland, he spun towards goal and bent a 15-yard shot into the far corner past Rune Jarstein. It was the perfect start.

The game settled down thereafter, but Norway warned of their threat on 27 minutes when Soderlund smacked a 20-yard volley off Michael McGovern’s crossbar.

Five minutes later, though, Washington made it 2-0.

Conor McLaughlin initiated it with a short pass to Davis. The Irish captain was again irrepressible and threaded a pass through the Norway defence. It released Washington who showed composure to slide a shot through Jarstein’s legs.

At half-time O’Neill will have reminded his player that their tempo needed to be maintained, but that would not be easy – and Norway were not giving up regardless of their position in the game or the group.

A third home goal would have settled the issue just after the interval when Gustav Valsvik nearly scored an own goal, and after that the visitors had a reasonable spell of possession. But McGovern was not seriously inconvenienced until the 77th minute when a 25 yard free kick from West Ham’s Havard Nordtveit forced the Fermanagh man to dive full length to push the ball away.