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Northern Ireland National Football Team

Head coach: Nigel Worthington
Captain: Aaron Hughes
Top scorer: David Healy
FIFA ranking: 79

The Northern Ireland national football team represents Northern Ireland in international football. In such events, the constituent countries of the United Kingdom compete separately, though not in the Olympic Games. Before 1921, all of Ireland was part of the United Kingdom and was represented by a single Ireland team, of which Northern Ireland is the direct successor; the independent Republic of Ireland now has its own team.

Northern Ireland's best World Cup performance was in their first appearance in the competition, the 1958 World Cup, where they reached the quarter-finals after beating Czechoslovakia 2-1 in the play-off. They were knocked out by France, losing 4-0. In the 1958 competition Northern Ireland became the smallest country to have qualified for the World Cup, a record that stood until Trinidad & Tobago qualified for the 2006 World Cup. Northern Ireland remains, however, the smallest country to have qualified for more than one World Cup, and the smallest country to have reached the World Cup quarter-finals.

Northern Ireland also qualified for the 1982 World Cup, again reaching the quarter-finals after topping the first stage group, having beaten Spain, the hosts 1-0, a match that has gone down in history as one of Northern Ireland's finest ever displays, and is still sung about by fans today. In 1982, Norman Whiteside became the youngest ever player in the World Cup finals, a record that still stands today. In the 1986 World Cup, they reached the first round. Billy Bingham, a member of the 1958 squad, was manager for both of these tournaments. They have not qualified for any other World Cups. The side have yet to participate in their first European Championship finals.

Northern Ireland were the last winners of the now defunct British Home Championship held in 1984. After qualifying for the 1986 World Cup, Northern Ireland entered a gradual decline. However, the 1994 World Cup and Euro '96 qualifiers saw respectable performances- in the latter, they finished level on points with the Republic of Ireland, but a goal difference of 5 to the Republic of Ireland's 6 cost them second place. Subsequent performances were less notable, although fortunes have improved since.

Lawrie Sanchez was appointed in January 2004 after a run of ten games without a goal. The previous manager was Sammy McIlroy. That run ended after his first game in charge, a 1-4 defeat to Norway in a friendly in February 2004. The run of sixteen games without a win ended after his second game, a 1-0 victory in a friendly over Estonia, with a largely experimental side, in March 2004.

On the 7th of September 2005 Northern Ireland achieved arguably their best victory in recent times by beating England 1-0 in a 2006 World Cup Qualifier at Windsor Park. David Healy scored the winner in the 73rd minute. Almost a year to the day later, on the 6th of September 2006, Northern Ireland defeated Spain 3-2 in a qualifier for Euro 2008, with Healy scoring a hat-trick. Healy also scored all of Northern Ireland's goals in the 2-1 victory over Sweden in the same qualification group. Healy has scored nine out of Northern Ireland's ten Euro 2008 qualification goals thus far.

Northern Ireland Team
No.	NAME	POS	Height	Weight	Age
-	Alan Mannus	G	-	-	-
1	Maik Taylor	G	6-4	198	35
12	Roy Carroll	G	6-2	177	29
2	Michael Duff	D	6-1	162	28
3	Jonathan Evans	D	6-2	170	19
5	Stephen Craigan	D	5-10	149	30
7	Sean Webb	D	6-2	173	24
18	Aaron Hughes	D	6-0	156	27
4	Grant McCann	M	5-10	154	27
6	Steven Davis	M	5-8	154	22
8	Damien Johnson	M	5-9	140	28
11	Chris Brunt	M	6-1	186	22
13	Ivan Sproule	M	-	-	26
16	Stuart Elliott	M	5-10	163	28
9	David Healy	S	5-8	149	27
10	Warren Feeney	S	5-10	146	26
14	Kyle Lafferty	S	6-4	154	19
15	James Quinn	S	6-1	178	32
17	Steve Jones	S	5-10	145	30

Group F
	GP	W	D	L	GS	GA	GD	P
Sweden	7	6	0	1	17	4	13	18
Spain	7	5	0	2	13	6	7	15
Northern Ireland	6	4	1	1	10	7	3	13
Denmark	6	3	1	2	9	5	4	10
Liechtenstein	7	1	1	5	4	18	-14	4
Iceland	7	1	1	5	5	15	-10	4
Latvia	6	1	0	5	4	7	-3	3