Fifa World Cup qualifier: Luxembourg v Northern Ireland
Venue: Stade de Luxembourg, Luxembourg Date: Thursday, 4 September Kick-off: 19:45 BST
Coverage: Watch dwell on BBC One NI, BBC Three, BBC iPlayer, BBC Sport web site and app
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Northern Ireland supervisor Michael O’Neill mentioned his aspect’s late arrival in Luxembourg for Thursday’s 2026 World Cup qualifier was a “little bit frustrating” however that he was comfortable along with his aspect’s preparations for the sport.
The squad assembled in Liverpool on Sunday, utilizing the services of the Premier League champions for a coaching base earlier than travelling the day earlier than the primary sport of their qualifying marketing campaign.
Due to fly from Liverpool to Luxembourg on Wednesday afternoon, an Irish Football Association spokesman mentioned their “charter aircraft was late repositioning from Gatwick due to adverse weather conditions in the south of England, followed by some issues with ground handling”.
The squad finally arrived at their crew lodge shortly after 20:00 BST, lower than 24 hours earlier than kick-off at the Stade de Luxembourg.
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O’Neill’s aspect have beforehand travelled two days earlier than a sport, however the supervisor mentioned the good thing about their coaching periods in Liverpool “far outweighed” an earlier arrival in Luxembourg.
“Really the players were fine, it’s just a bit frustrating because when you get all your work done and you leave the hotel, you want to try and get here as soon as possible and get in the hotel, but the fact is we’ve had three great days training at Liverpool.
“We did our matchday session that we’d usually do right here, we did it at Liverpool [on Wednesday morning] and we’ll have one session [on Thursday] morning simply to re-run issues and contact on just a few issues like set items once more and we’ll be able to play.”
Northern Ireland performed Luxembourg away in November within the Nations League, main 2-0 earlier than being pegged back to draw 2-2 in a end result that secured the purpose they wanted to high their group within the third tier of the competitors.
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O’Neill added that familiarity with the stadium contributed to the choice to conduct most of their preparations for Thursday’s sport in Liverpool.
“The actuality of the state of affairs is that you simply by no means know what stage of privateness you’ve gotten within the stadium while you prepare.
“We knew we’d played here recently, so we know the stadium, we know the pitch, that’s not something that they [the players] need to familiarise themselves with.
“The advantage of that’s clearly we skilled earlier, so the restoration interval is longer for the gamers than what it will be if we have been skilled right here [in Luxembourg on Wednesday].
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“Look, it’s what a lot of the bigger nations do. When the bigger nations come to Belfast, they often don’t train at the stadium, so we just felt that it was worth it in this situation.”
‘I’m happy with the lads which have are available’
Northern Ireland are lacking a bunch of gamers from a 25-man squad that, after Luxembourg on Thursday, will even face Germany in Cologne on Sunday with each video games dwell throughout the BBC.
Goalkeeper Pierce Charles and defenders Brodie Spencer and Dan Ballard are amongst those that will miss the video games, however O’Neill believes his panel has “enough to deal with” the problem.
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“We’ve called up players to give them the opportunity and I’m pleased with the lads that have come in,” he mentioned.
“They’ve trained very well and what we have seen with a lot of our lads is international football has helped their domestic and their club careers and so they have to take that opportunity.
“The one factor I’m by no means accountable for is clearly gamers who get injured enjoying for his or her membership, and I feel we have sufficient to cope with the 2 video games.”
‘He looks strong, he looks sharp again’
Jamie Reid has scored five goals in six games for Stevenage in League One this season [Getty Images]
One player who arrived for the international double-header in a rich vein of form is Stevenage striker Jamie Reid who has scored five goals in six games to start the League One campaign.
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The 31-year-old scored against Romania on his international debut in March 2024 but suffered a blood clot in his leg that summer. With the subsequent lay-off impacting his form through the 2024-25 season, he missed out on international squads in both March and June this year.
“Jamie had an damage that was fairly a irritating damage as a result of he might prepare however he could not get into contact after which I feel he did not actually have an ideal pre-season final season and his type suffered,” O’Neill said.
“Like any striker, when your type suffers, your confidence and every little thing is shaken a little bit bit by that and I feel he is in all probability benefited from the break.
“Obviously, we didn’t put him in March and June gave us a chance to look at other strikers as well, but he started the season the best of any of the strikers that we have. I’ve seen him in the first game of the season, he looks strong, he looks sharp again and he’s had a very good start to the season.”