Northern Ireland have moved up to 26th in the FIFA World Rankings above the likes of Poland (who they share a group with), Russia and Republic of Ireland.
Michael O’Neill’s side sealed a record breaking 10th consecutive game unbeaten when they saw off Slovenia. Not bad for a side who were ranked 129th just over a year ago.
Northern Ireland’s Euro 2016 Chances
After winning their group, they found themselves in Pot 4 for the Euro 2016 group draw and a difficult Euro 2016 group awaits. Germany will be expected to sail through, Poland are incredibly dangerous and Ukraine are no slouches either. But Northern Ireland are hard to beat. Can they pull off a huge shock this summer?
Michael O’Neill says he was pleased with the order of the fixtures, facing Germany last may benefit them, but the opener in Nice against Poland won’t be easy. Chris Brunt is out, Jamie Ward is a doubt and O’Neill will be desperate not to lose any more key players ahead of their opening fixture on the 12th of June.
Northern Ireland make themselves hard to beat. Michael O’Neill admitted that his players don’t get to do the ‘fun stuff’ that is often practiced in training, but they play for one another and similar to Atletico Madrid, they make it difficult for teams to find a way through.
The boss has done his research, watching Ukraine and Poland recently in their friendlies. He sees those two matches as their best chance of picking up points. Despite being linked with the vacant hot seat at Celtic, O’Neill has pledged his future to Northern Ireland declaring that ‘nothing would stop him taking his side to the Euros’.
Northern Ireland’s Euro 2016 Squad
Many of the players are known to fans of English football, but the likes of Craig Cathcart, Steven Davis and Gareth Macauley could be described as ‘effective’ but seldom labelled as ‘fashionable’ footballers. Stuart Dallas has had a decent end to the season with Leeds United in the Championship and they will be relying on him for creativity.
Oliver Norwood is another player who could have a say in this tournament. The Reading midfielder hasn’t had his best season domestically, but will be giving his all this summer. The Royals man has said Northern Ireland are ‘happy to fly under the radar’. Nobody is getting carried away, but in their first major tournament in 30 years, NI fans must be quietly confident of upsetting the applecart.
Euro 2016 Predictions for Northern Ireland
Don’t expect Northern Ireland to score many goals this tournament – just 14 in 12 games. But do expect them to frustrate their opponents, by closing down, working hard for one another and setting up to spoil the party. Just six goals have found their way past Roy Carroll in the last 11 games and although it’s a big step up for their miserly defence, they will be hoping for more of the same.
One Euro 2016 bet that catches the eye is Northern Ireland to be the Euro 2016 lowest scorers. The odds for this are 6/1 at Bet Victor and is well worth an ante-post bet.
It’s not the kind of football to excite the purists, but it is mighty effective and if they can quell the likes of Robert Lewandowski and Arkadiusz Milik in the opening fixture, they will feel as though they have an outside chance of qualifying from Group C.
Group C is not the easiest of tasks, but for a side who are unbeaten in 10, they are not without a chance of causing a few shocks this summer!
Jack Critchley
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