Northern Ireland win at 10-man Luxembourg
Luxembourg 1 - 3 Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland began their 2026 World Cup qualifying campaign with a win over Luxembourg.
Author | Alan White
Stadium | Stade de Luxembourg
Jamie Reid gave the visitors the lead in the eighth minute, but Luxembourg deservedly equalised through Aiman Dardari after half an hour.
Michael O'Neill's side were much improved after the break and earned victory thanks to first international goals from Shea Charles and Justin Devenny with Luxembourg's Seid Korac shown a second yellow in between.
This was a hard-fought three points and gives Northern Ireland a positive start to their campaign on a night where Slovakia beat Germany and potentially gave O'Neill's side more hopes of qualifying.
A closer look at what happened
Northern Ireland started on the front foot and twice tested goalkeeper Anthony Moris in the opening three minutes.
It was in the build-up to the second opportunity, when Reid was through on goal, that referee Andris Treimanis was alerted by the video assistant referee that Korac had handled in the area.
Moris would make his third save of the game from Isaac Price's penalty, but Stevenage striker Reid was on hand to slot home the rebound for his second international goal.
The returning Bailey Peacock-Farrell did not have his first save to make until the 26th minute when he parried Mathias Olesen's downward header away from goal.
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But three minutes later, the on-loan Blackpool keeper was picking the ball out of his net after Danel Sinani's delightful flick teed up Dardari, who cut in and curled home from the edge of the box.
Having started the half so strongly, Northern Ireland almost produced the perfect ending but Devenny's free-kick struck the crossbar.
They would have to wait less than 30 seconds after the restart to regain the lead, however, when Charles' deflected effort wrong-footed Moris.
Korac, who had already been booked in the aftermath of the penalty incident, was shown a second yellow for a clash with Reid in the 66th minute.
Luxembourg were left to feel doubly aggrieved when Charles lofted the resulting free-kick into the box and, after the hosts failed to clear, Crystal Palace's Devenny fired into the bottom corner.
