Northern Ireland 2-0 Belarus: Transition continues to gather pace ahead of big 2025

A sign of the improvement from the young squad even from a month ago was their second-half display against Belarus at home.

In the away game in Hungary, Northern Ireland started the first half well, squandered chances and then ran out of steam in the second period as they were held to a frustrating stalemate.

At Windsor Park however, they raced out of the blocks in the second half after a frustrating first period, scoring five minutes after half-time through Daniel Ballard with Dion Charles adding a second from the spot.

O’Neill was delighted that they did not let their frustrations boil over as they saw out a comfortable win that puts them in the box seat to win the group.

“The frustration you could feel it creeping in, we had control of the game, but we weren’t maximising it but second half when you score the game changes, and I thought we managed it very well,” he continued.

“Second half, we started really well from the outset, how we pressed and won the ball back we let them know we were going to be all over them with physical pressure.”

Now another step on the ladder for this improving young side will be winning away in the Nations League, something they have not managed this campaign so far, but with Luxembourg to come on Monday, they have the opportunity to rectify that.

“We want to go and try to win the game, we haven’t won away from home so the game is important in terms of showing that we can win away from home.”