Late Valentino Lazaro goal leaves Ulstermen pointless in the Nations League

Northern Ireland 1 : 2 Austria

Northern Ireland’s inaugural UEFA Nations League campaign ended in defeat after a very late goal from Valentino Lazaro gave the visiting Austrian’s a 2-1 win. The result leaves the Ulstermen bottom of League B Group 3 with four straight losses, and facing relegation to League C.

Nial McGinn speaking to the IFA website, tried to look on the bright side:

“I think we’ve just been very unfortunate at times. We’ve hit the post on numerous occasions and we’ve played really well. But I think there have been performances in this Nations League when we have played really well compared to when we did qualify for the Euros when we maybe didn’t play as well but everyone knew their jobs and kept clean sheets and merited the right results.

“Performances have been great, but it’s a results-based business at the end of the day.”

The green and white army had reason to be optimistic going into their last UEFA nations league game with Austria at Windsor park on Sunday. Northern Ireland had nothing to play for but pride after being knocked out of the competition prior to kick off with Austria.

Michael O’Neil’s team looked impressive despite scoring, drawing with their Irish neighbours at the Aviva stadium in Dublin on Thursday. Excitement for a win was rife in the stands at Windsor park, with the Northern Irish side aiming to end their year on a high on home turf. However, A game that started with a roar after a warm minute’s applause for Derek McKinley, Northern Irelands’ kit man for 30 years up until 2011, ended with only the Austrians making noise.

Coming into the game, Austria drew 0-0 with runaway Group B3 Leaders Bosnia-Herzegovina on Thursday and were also desperate to get a much-needed win to boost the momentum within their squad. Austria boss Franco Foda made five changes, again mostly from midfield up – in came centre half Aleksandar Dragovic, midfielder Julian Baumgartlinger (as captain), the versatile David Alaba, and attackers Xaver Schlager and Michael Gregoritsch.

This left the talismanic West Ham forward, Marko Arnautović left sitting on the bench for the visitors to surprise of both sets of fans given his form for West Ham in recent matches.

Neither side were able to catch promoted Bosnia-Herzegovina and the contest reflected its dead-rubber status until Schlager’s clinical 49th-minute opener. Frustration in front of goal had been the prevailing theme of Northern Ireland’s campaign and a dull first half offered few solutions.

There was some long overdue luck involved, admittedly, but good football too. George Saville won the ball back from a Liam Boyce lay-off, found Jordan Jones on the left, and he released Corry Evans, who steadied himself before shooting low and seeing his shot loop in off the sliding Martin Hinteregger.

Corry Evans looked to have given the already-relegated hosts reason to cheer when he ended Northern Ireland’s three-match scoreless run with an equaliser, but they were ultimately dealt a fourth successive competitive defeat by Lazaro’s perfectly timed first international goal.

That winner was a handsome one, admittedly, curled in by left winger Lazaro, finishing off a superb counter-attack orchestrated by the Austrians’ two-star players, Alaba and Arnautovic, who had come off the bench after 70 minutes to lift his side.

O’Neill insisted he was not left “devastated or despondent” by the three previous Nations League losses and there was enough evidence in this admittedly deflating defeat to give hope for the future. The Northern Irish boss has repeatedly emphasised that his side’s recent matches have been about blooding young talent – giving them experience and building a squad capable of challenging for Euro 2020 qualification.

He stated, “We have been introducing new players to football at this level and the only way to do that is by getting them time on the pitch,” he added.

“For many, these games have been their first exposure to this level and they’ve had to learn quickly.
“We are a young team and we’re asking players to step up from Championship level and sometimes League One level. Sometimes they don’t manage games particularly well, so they need time.”

Though there are areas for improvement – some of which are perhaps beyond the manager’s control – Northern Ireland’s clear ability to match the teams around them on pure footballing terms suggests they should at least be competitive come the main course of Euro 2020 qualifying.

Northern Ireland: Carson, McAuley, J. Evans, Saville, McGinn (Whyte 74), Davis, Boyce (Lafferty 74), C. Evans (McNair 88), Dallas, Jones, Smith. Subs Hazard, McGovern, McLaughlin, Thompson, Ferguson, Hughes, Vassell, Cathcart, Magennis.

Austria: Linder, Ulmer, Dragovic, Hinteregger, Ilsanker (Zulj 46), Alaba, Gregoritsch (Arnautovic 71), Baumgartlinger, Lainer, Lazaro, Schlager subs Strebinger, Stankovic, Wimmer, Goiginger, Schaub, Kainz, Schopf, Hierlander, Janko.