Northern Ireland qualify for the 2026 World Cup

Northern Ireland kicked off their 2026 World Cup qualifying campaign with a 3-1 victory over Luxembourg at the Stade de Luxembourg.

Jamie Reid opened the scoring after 7 minutes, reacting quickest to fire home after Isaac Price’s penalty was saved by Anthony Moris. The spot-kick had been awarded following a VAR review that confirmed Seid Korac had handled in the box.

Luxembourg responded well, and on the half-hour mark Aiman Dardari curled a superb finish from the edge of the area, capitalising on a flick from Danel Sinani to level the match. Northern Ireland had started strongly, forcing Moris into two early saves, but the hosts grew into the game and looked a threat before half-time.

The visitors regained the lead almost immediately after the restart when Shea Charles’ shot deflected past Moris. The match turned further in Northern Ireland’s favour just after the hour when Korac, already on a booking, was shown a second yellow for a foul on Reid.

From the resulting free-kick, Luxembourg failed to clear, and Justin Devenny fired home his first international goal to seal the win.

Liverpool full-back Conor Bradley played 76 minutes in his first start of the 2025-26 season, helping to maintain defensive stability alongside the returning goalkeeper Bailey Peacock-Farrell, who was largely untroubled apart from parrying Mathias Olesen’s header.

While Northern Ireland’s performance was not without its imperfections, they demonstrated resilience and maturity to secure a first competitive away win since March 2023.

With Slovakia pulling off a surprise win over Germany in the group’s other fixture, this result gives O’Neill’s side an important early boost in Group A.

Northern Ireland now travel to Cologne for Sunday’s clash against Germany (19:45 BST), where they will look to build on this opening victory.