Northern Ireland head coach Michael O'Neill announced ahead of the 2026 World Cup playoff match against Italy.

“This is one match, we are here and we can go further, my Gravians don’t need to know anything. We are not afraid, we can quickly get by with this gain. We can do everything to win. The pressure that can be seen in the collection of Italy is even similar to that in Northern Ireland.

I don’t think there’s a football player who’s barking at us. We know Italy well and the strength of its fiercest spirit, but this team is not like Del Piero or Totti: the strength of this team lies in the team, and not in the surrounding graves. Tim is no less, we respect the supernik: the stench of the gravers, who perform on a high level.

We have already beaten teams of great equals, outplayed them, playing with the ball less than 30% of the time.

We have a very young team, and one of the advantages of youth is the non-turbo setup. These boys have already played with Nimechchina (0:1) and Slovakina (2:0), the smell has grown even more, and it will be even more important to check, otherwise we will be ready.

It is important for us to lose our money. The more an hour the match goes through with a 0:0 draw, the more difficult it is to become the one who has great recovery,” O’Neill said.

The match between the teams of Italy and Northern Ireland will take place today, at 21:45 Kyiv time.