Rory McIlroy’s four majors. Northern Ireland's men beating Spain at the 1982 World Cup. AP McCoy and his record 20 championships. Heck, even George Best’s 1968 Ballon d’Or. They’ve all been eclipsed in the mind of Kenny Shiels.
“This here is far and away the best ever sporting achievement for Northern Ireland,” the manager gushed when his side reached Women's Euro 2022 with a 4-1 aggregate play-off win over Ukraine last year. “For the UK, actually – these are amateur players, 16 of the panel play in the Irish League… it’s incredible what they have achieved, incredible.”
And it really is. Northern Ireland are the lowest-ranked team to qualify for this Euros and the only tournament debutants; in fact, as of FIFA’s March rankings, Shiels’ side sat below the likes of Vietnam, Chinese Taipei and Myanmar. They didn’t even try to qualify the last time England held the Euros in 2005, and hadn’t since the 1991 edition.
To cap it all off, Northern Ireland made it to this summer’s showpiece without star player Rachel Furness of Liverpool, who was forced to watch the second leg of their play-off in Belfast on crutches from the sidelines with a snapped ankle. More than a bid for Euros triumph, this feels like a pitch to Hollywood.
Even the group stage itself was dramatic: Northern Ireland were twice smashed for six by Norway, but after 2-2 and 0-0 stalemates with Wales, their head-to-head away goals record snuck them into the play-offs as the lowest-ranked team – handy, since their goal difference was 12 worse than Wales’.
Typically, a tricky draw for the tournament itself has thrown up Norway and pantomime villains England – the Lionesses themselves have plundered 15 goals past them in three games since February 2021. But that’s where this sort of chat ends – because the Green and White Army, playing all three group games in Southampton, are looking to shorten their odds and surprise many this summer.
Getting Furness fit and firing once more was the first step – in October, the Reds ace scored five times across two 2023 World Cup qualifiers against North Macedonia to break David Healy’s national scoring record, before picking up her BBC Northern Ireland Sports Personality of the Year 2021 award from Jurgen Klopp. If that wasn’t already enough, the Sunderland native sealed a fine season by helping Liverpool to the second-tier title.
More crucially, though, the rest of Furness’ teammates have been afforded the chance to step things up with a professional, seven-month training camp that began in January. Anyone in the squad without a professional club has enjoyed access to physiotherapy, cryospa treatments and psychology sessions, with England-based players linking up during international breaks. But even before that in October, they’d held the Lionesses for over an hour at Wembley until succumbing 4-0.
Whatever happens, 2022 has already been a watershed year for women’s football in Northern Ireland. This summer, their squad will meld a handful of 50-plus-cap stars with many more whose taste for the international game has barely been whetted, but they’re all joining forces to do something none of their compatriots have ever achieved. Maybe, just maybe, the shocks aren’t over yet…
