A sold out Windsor Park hopes to witness Michael O\u2019Neill\u2019s young braves cause a sensation by landing a major blow as Group A heats up with three qualifiers remaining.<\/p>\n
With Germany, Northern Ireland and Slovakia all on six points, victory for the men in green over Julian Nagelsmann\u2019s outfit in south Belfast could help power tonight\u2019s hosts towards automatic qualification for next year\u2019s finals in north America and Mexico.<\/p>\n
Northern Ireland were at their brisk, vibrant best last Friday with a deserved 2-0 win over the Slovaks in the first act of a home double header \u2013 but the visit of Die Mannschaft naturally represents a significant upturn in challenge.<\/p>\n
Galbraith was outstanding against Slovakia and combined well with Conor Bradley to set up Northern Ireland\u2019s opening goal on a raucous evening. More of the same, at least, will be required tonight in what is unquestionably the national team\u2019s biggest game in years.<\/p>\n
Despite Germany defeating Northern Ireland 3-1 in the corresponding fixture last month in Cologne, O\u2019Neill\u2019s men acquitted themselves well – and Galbraith feels he and his team-mates have given Nagelsmann something to think about.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think they (Germany) will be nervous\u201d, Galbraith told Belfast Telegraph Sport. \u201cIf you look at their last game and performance between us they\u2019ll definitely have us in the back of their mind, they\u2019ll have to be really on it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think from the win over Slovakia we need to play with the same intensity, defending and attacking, especially at home with the fans behind us.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe big one is always taking the positives from the last game and managing the game a bit more in the final stages\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Swansea City midfielder was instrumental against the Slovaks, but remains modest about his contribution.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought I played well, but for me, it\u2019s one of those ones that I\u2019m more of a team player,\u201d added Galbraith, set to win his 11th international cap tonight.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt times it would be either me or Isaac (Price) going forward to put more pressure on Slovakia and that\u2019s something we\u2019ll maybe look at doing again. It was part of our tactical game plan. Michael got the game plan down to a tee\u201d.<\/p>\n
With Bradley suspended due to being yellow carded three nights ago, Galbraith would be happy to see the armband given to Trai Hume, as part of manager O\u2019Neill\u2019s ongoing captain rotation policy. Sunderland right-back Hume skippered Northern Ireland in the first two qualifiers in Luxembourg and Germany.<\/p>\n
Hume has already captained Northern Ireland in this campaign \u2013 the Sunderland right-back led the team in the opening two qualifiers in Luxembourg and Germany.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrai has been brilliant and the captaincy suits him\u201d, explained 24 year old Galbraith. \u201cObviously we have tried using different captains and Conor led the side out (versus Slovakia). It\u2019s a big miss for us, not having Conor, but that\u2019s football, it\u2019s one of those things that can affect a team.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrai is a great leader, he\u2019s really consistent and really leads by example too.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A sold out Windsor Park hopes to witness Michael O\u2019Neill\u2019s young braves cause a sensation by landing a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":494411,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5310],"tags":[2000,299,1824,8538],"class_list":{"0":"post-494410","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-germany","11":"tag-northern-ireland-football-team"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115363066949239317","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=494410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}