Northern Ireland 1-0 Luxembourg: Jamie Donley's penalty ends 2026 World Cup qualifying with victory
Jamie Donley’s first international goal saw Northern Ireland end their World Cup qualifying Group A campaign with a drab 1-0 win over Luxembourg at a subdued Windsor Park.Donley, making his first competitive Northern Ireland start, sent Anthony Moris the wrong way from the penalty spot in the 44th minute after Christopher Martins fouled Ciaron Brown in the box, and that was all it took to settle a disappointing game.
Northern Ireland had hoped this would be the night they secured second place in the group, but Friday's stoppage-time 1-0 defeat to Slovakia left this as a dead-rubber - albeit with a play-off place in March to look forward to anyway thanks to their Nations League group win last year.
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Donley's first-half penalty was the difference
Michael O'Neill made six changes, handing Jamie McDonnell his first start, replacing the injured Bailey Peacock-Farrell with Conor Hazard and also bringing in Donley, Brown, Jamal Lewis and Ethan Galbraith back from suspension.The manager left out Trai Hume completely and kept Justin Devenny and Josh Magennis on the bench, citing the risk of suspension for the play-off semi-final amid uncertainty over the regulations for those already on a yellow card.
On Sunday, the Northern Ireland manager said his request for clarification on the rules had gone unanswered, but the official team-sheet showed there were no players, including those on a yellow, at risk of a ban.
After a minute's applause in memory of George Best, who died 20 years ago this month, the match kicked off in an atmosphere becoming of a game with nothing riding on it.
Isaac Price hit a volley straight at Moris in the ninth minute before a neat move started by Donley and involving Galbraith and Price ended with Lewis, making his first international appearance in 13 months, blazing over.Fans were off their seats in the 17th minute when Donley turned in from Galbraith's cross, but it was ruled out with the latter being in an offside position in the build-up.Luxembourg, whose only goal of a miserable campaign came in September's 3-1 loss to Northern Ireland, threatened as Christopher Martins was denied by a good save from Hazard, making his first competitive start in more than two years. Moments later, Dirk Carlson swept wide.But it was pretty tepid stuff until five minutes before half-time when referee Kristo Tohver was sent to the screen by VAR Bram Van Driessche, who had spotted Martins catching Brown with his boot.There had been half-hearted appeals from Northern Ireland players, who were busy watching Price fire wide from the edge of the box, but the penalty was given to the fury of Luxembourg.Both Moris and coach Dan Huet - who stepped in for the suspended Jeff Strasser on the touchline - were booked for their protests before Donley stepped up to score Northern Ireland's 100th World Cup qualifying goal at Windsor Park.Amid a number of second-half changes there was an 86th cap for Magennis that moves him level with Keith Gillespie as Northern Ireland's 10th most-capped players and a debut for Barnsley's Patrick Kelly, but a poor contest was petering out.It ended with Luxembourg appealing for a penalty as Benfica's Leandro Barreiro tumbled under a challenge from Kelly, but Tohver waved away their protests as the final whistle blew.O'Neill praises the 'real quality' of DonleyNorthern Ireland boss Michael O'Neill speaking about Jamie Donley at his post-match press conference:"Jamie's a real player, real quality. I wanted to see him as a nine. There's no secret the nine is a problem position for us and I think Jamie has different attributes from some of the other strikers."I thought he did really well in the game. He's clever, his link-up play is good. He took the penalty well and you saw the finish for the goal that was disallowed. Ethan was offside, but you saw the quality that Jamie displayed in that moment."Donley caught the eye while at Leyton Orient last season, but this campaign has been more difficult with limited game time at Stoke, where he has made only six appearances so far."He's unfortunate that the loan he's on at the minute from Spurs to Stoke is not going as he would have planned and he's not been given many opportunities, but hopefully that situation resolves itself in January," O'Neill added."He's a really high technical level of player, a great left foot, real awareness and great vision, just a really good footballer - simple as that. I watched him at Orient last year in many games and thought he was the best player on the pitch…"He's 20 years of age and he's got a lot ahead of him."
