2022 World Cup qualifying, Uefa Group C: Bulgaria v Northern Ireland (Levski National Stadium, Sofia, 7.45pm Irish time)
SUNDAY might have been a black Sabbath for Northern Ireland but the dark mood soon improved, at least to deep purple. A stroll close to Lake Geneva helped lift the gloom, like wind blowing away smoke on the water.
The path to Qatar 2022 is almost certainly blocked by Switzerland, Saturday night’s conquerors close to sealing this group’s play-off place, perhaps even challenging Italy for top spot.
Yet Ian Baraclough’s men are determined to put the disappointment and controversy of that 2-0 defeat, and Jamal Lewis’s sending off, behind them, and look forward. First to tonight’s meeting with Bulgaria, and on to the best possible seeding for Euro 2024.
“We went down to Lake Geneva and had a walk around for a couple of hours,” said striker Conor Washington. “It was a tough defeat to take and those days when you have the opportunity to do those kind of things are really valuable. It was good to clear your head and it was a beautiful place as well.”
Boss Baraclough insisted the focus is positive again, saying: “Everyone deals with it their own way, and to get the chance during this period to get some fresh air in a beautiful place, it allows you to release any tensions, clear your head and re-think, and as soon as we got back to the hotel myself and the coaching staff focused on Bulgaria.”
Tonight’s opponents had dug out draws in Belfast and then, even more impressively, in Italy before beating Lithuania 1-0 in tonight’s stadium early last month - but on their return to competitive action at the weekend they lost the re-match with the Baltic nation 3-1.
That leaves these two teams level on five points, albeit the visitors have a game in hand. It’s not mathematically impossible for NI to qualify, but they’d probably need to win their remaining three matches and hope that the Swiss don’t pick up three more points from as many games.
More realistically, the best NI can hope for - besides some better luck in the draw - is to still be in Pot 3 for the Euro 2024 qualifying draw. Currently ranked 27th among European nations, that could change after this international break, with qualification becoming even tougher for fourth seeds.
Baraclough hopes not to have to worry about anything other than a game of football tonight, though, commenting: “You just hope the way the game is refereed allows the players to play with freedom and it’s settled between the two teams.
“No one wants games to be controversial and no one wants to talk about the referee days after a game. They want to remember the event for how the game was and the goals and mistakes; it’s not a referee’s duty to be spoken about.
“When the referee is anonymous, they are deemed to have had a pretty good game. So enough on that, we move on to the Bulgaria game.”
The visitors will be without left wing-back Lewis due to his automatic suspension, and experienced centre half Jonny Evans due to his ongoing foot problem, although Baraclough said the 33-year-old might be able to feature this weekend for Leicester City against his former club Manchester United.
Yet the aim is to pose defensive problems for their hosts, despite failing to score against them in Belfast. Washington is optimistic, though:
“Since the gaffer has come in we’ve had more of the ball, we definitely dominated the home game against Bulgaria and we know we should have won the game on the balance of things.
“It’s really important we stay patient and if they are going to sit behind the ball and be organised we have to be patient and try to break them down.”
As hosts, and aiming to bounce back from their Lithuania loss and improve their own ranking - presently 34th among Uefa sides - Bulgaria may be more attacking here, although the 29-year-old isn’t so sure: “That might be the case but we’ve played against enough nations now to know that’s not always the case.”
Yet he isn’t perturbed by the pressure of potentially getting few chances, explaining: “It doesn’t feel any different to club football. A lot of the pressure as a striker probably comes from within, in terms of wanting to score every chance you get - I don’t think that changes, really.
“There’s obviously the disappointment of not scoring every chance you get, but you deal with that. In general all of the strikers here enjoy playing for Northern Ireland. We all need to do more in terms of being a bit more ruthless.”
However this qualifying group finishes, Baraclough believes it has been beneficial already: “I think we are in a good place. We have found that we have more numbers than we probably had a year ago. We have players who are capable of stepping up into the squad. It certainly gives me more of a headache picking a squad now.
“There is an excitement and the senior players are looking after the younger players and are integrating them. We have seen performances that may have taken some by surprise but for us as coaching staff it backs up the decision to throw them in, as for the last six to nine months we haven't had a full squad to go with in games.”
