Lithuania 1-4 Northern Ireland: Visitors claim precious win

Lithuania 1-4 Northern Ireland: Shayne Lavery and Paddy McNair strike late on to seal precious win after goalkeeper Bailey Peacock-Farrell saved penalty to foil fightback from hosts

  • Daniel Ballard opened the scoring and Conor Washington netted a penalty
  • Rolandas Baravykas pulled one back before the hosts were awarded a spot kick
  • Peacock-Farrell saved the penalty and Lavery made it 3-1 shortly afterwards
  • McNair converted a late penalty awarded for a challenge on Steven Davis 

Northern Ireland breathed new life into their Group C qualifying campaign with a deserved victory over Lithuania in Vilnius.

Dan Ballard, on loan at Millwall from Arsenal, scored his first international goal to put Ian Baraclough’s side ahead and Charlton’s Conor Washington doubled their lead from the spot five minutes into the second half.

However, Rolandas Baravykas hit back for the bottom team in the group before Bailey Peacock-Farrell kept out Arvydas Novikovas’ penalty following a foul by Paddy McNair.

Shayne Lavery restored Ireland’s two-goal margin by turning in Jordan Thompson’s cross

LITHUANIA (4-2-3-1): Setkus; Baravykas, Utkus, Satkus, Slavickas; Verbickas, Megelaitis; Novikovas, Cernych, Lasickas; Dubickas. Subs: Gertmonas, Plukas, Klimavicius, Gaspuitis, Dapkus, Uzela, E Jankauskas, Tutyskinas, D Kazlauskas, Barauskas, Vorobjovas.

Scorer: Baravykas 54

Booked: Utkus, Megelaitis, Slavickas

N IRELAND (3-5-2): Peacock-Farrell; McNair, Cathcart, Ballard; Smith, Davis, McCann, Thompson, Lewis; Washington, Lavery. Subs: Carson, Hazard, Flanagan, Donnelly, McGinn, Lafferty, Charles, Jones, Whyte, McCalmont, Brown.

Scorers: Ballard 20, Washington pen 52, Lavery, McNair pen 82

Booked: McNair, Washington

Referee: Stephanie Frappart (France)

Shayne Lavery made amends for two earlier misses when he marked his first competitive international by turning in Jordan Thompson’s cross before McNair converted a late penalty awarded for Edgaras Utkus’s rash challenge on Steven Davis.

Northern Ireland now face Switzerland at Windsor Park on Wednesday looking to put pressure on the Swiss and Italy at the top of the group.

They came into the game needing to win to stay in touch with Italy and Switzerland at the top of the group after dropping points against Bulgaria at Windsor Park in March.

 

Paddy McNair converted a late penalty awarded for Utkus’s rash challenge on Davis

But it hadn’t been the best of preparations for Baraclough with Stuart Dallas pulling out on the eve of the game due to personal reasons after Jonny Evans, brother Corry Evans and Josh Magennis were ruled out by injury and George Saville through suspension.

The Northern Ireland boss opted for a back-three, five in midfield and Lavery starting alongside Washington up front, and saw his team dominate the first half.

Lavery had a golden chance as early as the fifth minute when Lewis whipped in a cross from the left that found the Blackpool striker unmarked in front of goal, but he fluffed his effort from close range.

However, Ballard made no mistake when he was presented with an even simpler opportunity to score his first international goal in the 20th minute. A corner was cleared to the edge of the box where Lewis and Davis worked the ball out to the right for Washington. His cross was excellent as it beat goalkeeper Ernestas Setkus and fell perfectly for Ballard to bundle the ball into an empty net.

Conor Washington doubled their lead from the spot five minutes into the second half

Lavery squandered another chance before half-time when he was sent racing clear by Washington but the ball bounced too high on the artificial surface and he blazed his shot over.

Northern Ireland took firm control of the game five minutes after the restart when French referee Stephanie Frappart spotted a clear handball by Linas Megelaitis as he blocked Michael Smith’s shot and Washington sent Setkus the wrong way to score from the penalty spot.

However, it all threatened to go wrong for Baraclough’s side in the space of 10 minutes. First, Baravykas rifled a fantastic shot past Peacock-Farrell after a corner had bounced through to him on the edge of the box. Then McNair conceded a penalty for an untidy challenge on Justas Lasickas after Frappart was advised by VAR to review the incident on a pitchside monitor.

However, Peacock-Farrell guessed the right way to save the spot-kick from Novikovas and Lavery made sure of victory when he took his third chance of the night in the 67th minute. Lewis played in Thompson down the left and his low cross was turned in by Lavery from close-range.




Share this article


Source: Read Full Article