MONDAY’S 7am red-eye flight from Dublin to Berlin was packed with Northern Ireland supporters.
One guy’s hoody bore the statement ‘GAWA Dare to dream’, but surely it’s asking too much for even hardcore fans to dare to dream of a Northern Ireland win, or even a draw, in Hannover tonight?
A few scoops of the local brew might make it easier to get your head around and some of the GAWA made a good early start and knocked back pints before boarding. Others grabbed a quick smoke on the way over to the plane and we weren’t on it long before ‘Big Davey’ – two seats over - got up to use the toilet with the plane still on the tarmac.
“Yeooooooooo,” came a chorus from his mates up at the back.
The smiling stewardess explained that it wasn’t possible to use the facilities until we were in the air so everyone joined in: “YEOOOOOOOO” as Davey returned to his seat and crossed his legs until we eventually took off about 20 minutes later. That didn’t dampen his spirits though. Why would it?
A quick conversation with the curly-haired Dublin student type with the nose ring reading Mao - the biography of Chairman Mao went something like: Big Davey (a painter and decorator): “Whaddayeat yoursell?
Student type: “Yeah, so I live in Berlin.”
BD: “Do ye aye?”
ST: “Yeah, I’m working in a call centre right now - I needed to get something quickly - but I might go to college there next year. I just needed a change.”
BD: “Right. Did ye?”
The big man headed off up to the back and that was the last I saw of him until I was on the train to Hannover and he came wobbling up the aisle (to the toilets once again) with a familiar ‘Yeoooooooooooo’ coming from behind him.
The fans will enjoy their trip - win, lose or draw. Of course they know it’s a long shot, but they’ll also know that Northern Ireland have previous against Germany. Remember Gerry Taggart’s wundergoal back in the day? Ian Stewart and Norman Whiteside in the 1-0 wins in 1983 and Michael Hughes (twice) have all scored in this fixture down the years.
As Niall McGinn said after Saturday’s 4-0 win against San Marino: “You never know on the night”.
Well you don’t but still, with Toni Kroos, Thomas Mueller, Mario Gotze, Mesut Ozil, Matts Hummels, Manuel Neuer et al against them it’s hard to envisage anything but a win for the World Cup holders.
In the Euros back in June, when the teams met in a group game, the Germans ran the Northern Ireland defence ragged again and again. Goalkeeper Michael McGovern was inspired as the North hung in there and left the pitch with their heads held high after a 1-0 loss.
There’ll be the same mindset tonight and though the Germans have responded to their loss to France at the semi-final stage of the Euros with qualifier wins against Czech Republic and Norway, they certainly won’t get victory handed to them on a plate tonight.
Dare to dream, as Big Davey might say.
