Michael O’Neill proud as young Northern Ireland side lose to Italy in play-off

Michael O’Neill could be proud of his Northern Ireland players after their hopes of reaching this summer’s World Cup ended in a 2-0 qualifying play-off semi-final loss away to Italy.

Northern Ireland were always second favourites against the four-time world champions, who were desperate to avoid failing to reach the finals for a third consecutive time, but acquitted themselves superbly before falling to second-half goals from Sandro Tonali and Moise Kean.

Tonali’s goal – a powerful strike after Isaac Price was unable to clear a cross into the box – changed the mood inside the stadium completely as the tension lifted, and it was always going to be a big ask of Northern Ireland to recover.

“I couldn’t ask any more from the players,” O’Neill said. “Our game plan in the first half is excellent. We gave them very few chances. We obviously had to defend corners, which we defended extremely well, and had a good chance from a corner ourselves that we could have done better from…

“Ultimately in the second half we caused our own problems a lot. We had a couple of nervous moments before the goal and we’re just out of shape. It’s not a great header (from Price) and then it lands with the wrong man, Tonali, who strikes a great ball.

“Once you’re behind in the game it’s difficult but I thought our attitude throughout the game, our level of performance, was terrific.”

The average age of Northern Ireland’s starting XI was just 22.5, the nation’s second lowest of the post-war era.

It said a huge amount about the progress of this group that, on a night when key players Conor Bradley, Dan Ballard and Ali McCann were missing, that they could give Italy such a testing night.

That is something Northern Ireland will look to build on when attention shifts to the Euro 2028 qualifying campaign.

“I think there’s a lot of character,” O’Neill added. “There’s a lot of energy in the team, but there’s some really good players as well. Players who I think will progress in their career and play at a higher level…

“It’s hard when you lose a game to realise the positives. The players are disappointed and you have to feel that disappointment with them. But for a nation of our size, to come with a team of that age, play as we did, there’s a lot more positives.

“The difficulty is having the depth in our squad to deal with the players not available to us. That’s something that will take time. There’s no way to fast track that. We just have to be patient.

“When we reflect on this campaign, overall to be here at the play-off stage, with the way we played in the group, there’s a lot more things to be positive about.”

Italy boss Gennaro Gattuso called the game a “struggle” and admitted his belief that Northern Ireland would simply go long in their play had been wrong.

“Northern Ireland surprised us,” he said. “We expected them to be far more vertical but they did try to pass it around.

“After 15 or 20 minutes we realised that and moved better. Our mentality and our tactics in the first half were not what we wanted.”