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Northern Ireland Get Second Win Of International Break With Slick Football

Northern Ireland Get Second Win Of International Break With Slick Football
PJ Browne
By PJ Browne
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Northern Ireland beat Belarus 2-1 in their Euro 2020 Group C qualifier on Sunday night.

The winner came from Bolton striker Josh Magennis in the 87th minute.

It was some slick football which saw the North breach the Belarussian goal for the second and decisive time.

After taking a long ball on his chest just outside the box, Magennis - who had entered the game as a replacement for Niall McGinn 20 minutes earlier - found Stuart Dallas who in turn found Paddy McNair raiding down the right.

The Middlesbrough defender squared the ball just to the edge of the penalty area for Magennis to side foot to the net.

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Northern Ireland had taken lead after 30 minutes via a Jonny Evans header. However, Igor Stasevich equalised just three minutes later.

The game was the second win of the international break for Michael O'Neill's side. They also beat Estonia 2-0 on Thursday.

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"It was amazing," Magennis told BBC Northern Ireland after the game.

"When we came in, Michael made it pretty clear that we'd split the group up into a mini-group. We've got the first four games that we really believe we can go on and win and then we've got the really difficult games later on in the group. It was important that we managed to get six points to give us any chance of trying to top the group.

"We played some fantastic football. The squad's developing.

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"We've brought an expectation that we can win matches. We know that we've got different styles of play that we can [use] to win the game. We've moved on from just hitting it forward, playing off second balls."

Watch: Ireland U21s Begin Stephen Kenny Era With A Bang

 

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