EURO 2016: Five things to know about Northern Ireland
AFP
May 11, 2016 15:36 MYT
May 11, 2016 15:36 MYT
Euro 2016: Group C - Northern Ireland
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1) Euro debut
Northern Ireland, despite a proud history in world football, will be appearing in their first European Championship finals in France.
Amid all the political recriminations in Ireland, Northern Ireland first started playing under their current name in the 1950s.
They have reached the World Cup finals three times and reached the quarter finals in 1958.
They are also technically British champions as the winners of the final British Home Championship tournament held in 1984.
2) Whiteside beats Pele
Norman Whiteside took one of legend Pele's records.
When he took the field against Yugoslavia in the World Cup finals in Spain in 1982, the Northern Ireland player was just 17 years and 41 days old -- the youngest player at the World Cup finals and more than 200 days ahead of Pele who set his record at the 1958 finals.
Recently turned 51, Whiteside is now a podiatrist but also wrote "Determined", a well received book about his life and injury struggles at Manchester United.
3) Washington's country choice
Conor Washington was born in England, was eligible to play for Scotland through his mother, made his name playing for Wales and chose to play for Northern Irland where a grandmother was born.
Washington, 23, who worked as a postman before breaking into football and is now with Queens Park Rangers in the Championship, made his debut for Northern Ireland against Wales in March and already has one goal in two game.
4) North v South
Irish relations have come a long way since a notoriously tough World Cup qualifier between Northern Ireland and Irish Republic in Belfast on November 17 1993.
Ten weeks earlier, 10 people were killed in an IRA bomb attack in the city.
A week later eight people died in a revenge attack. Irish Republic needed at least a point to reach the World Cup finals, Northern Ireland were determined to stop them.
Current Northern Ireland manager Michael Q'Neill was a substitute that tense night when Jimmy Quinn put the North ahead in a packed Windsor Park.
"It was nasty," Irish Republic manager of the time, Jackie Charlton, said later. Alan McLoughlin scored an equaliser but there were no celebrations.
"You didn’t dare look around and make eye contact.
The venom in their eyes shocked me," McLoughlin remembered.
5) Unbeaten
Michael O'Neill's Northern Ireland team have set one record before they even arrive in France for Euro 2016.
The 1-1 draw against Wales on March 29 took the team to 10 straight games without defeat, beating the nine games that Billy Bingham's Northern Ireland managed in 1979-80 and 1985-86.