Northern Ireland v Norway: Underdogs must channel spirit of 2011 to create new memories – Magill

Since that victory in 2011, Norway have won the last six meetings between the two teams by comfortable margins – most recently a 4-1 win at Euro 2022.

But this young team has no trace of the scars of these games. Only 11 of the 23 players in the Euro 2022 squad are in Oxtoby’s squad for this play-off.

In fact, only seven of those eleven players featured in the opening game against Norway, which was Northern Ireland’s first game at a major tournament.

For some of the younger players in the squad, Friday’s first leg is undoubtedly the biggest game of their careers, but you won’t see that in pre-match training.

There were lots of smiles and laughter as Northern Ireland warmed up in the icy conditions in Larne and Magill said the squad were just “really excited to get going”.

“The message is to control what we can control. That’s how we put ourselves into the game,” she added.

“We’ve been outsiders all our lives, so we’re used to it. We have absolutely nothing to lose and everything to gain.”

“As long as we go into this game sticking together as a group and giving our best effort, we have a really good chance of pulling it off.”

While Northern Ireland struggled to close out the game against Croatia in normal time, where Lauren Wade scored a superb winner in extra time, the hosts must find their ruthless superiority against Norway on Friday, according to Magill.

Norway drew four of their Euro 2025 qualifiers but defeated Albania 14-0 on aggregate to reach the final play-off round.