{"id":494575,"date":"2025-10-12T21:56:17","date_gmt":"2025-10-12T21:56:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/494575\/"},"modified":"2025-10-12T21:56:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-12T21:56:17","slug":"northern-ireland-football-trai-hume-states-the-mentality-ni-must-have-to-stun-mighty-germany-at-windsor-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/494575\/","title":{"rendered":"Northern Ireland football: Trai Hume states the mentality NI must have to stun mighty Germany at Windsor Park"},"content":{"rendered":"

An impressive 2-0 home win over Slovakia on Friday has fuelled belief inside and outside the camp that O\u2019Neill\u2019s young guns can qualify from Group A.<\/p>\n

The squad has fought hard to sit level with Germany and Slovakia on six points, and a victory against the four-time winners in Belfast will send expectation levels soaring even higher.<\/p>\n

After scoring his first international goal in the win over Slovakia, Sunderland defender Hume is hungry to shoot down Julian Nagelsmann\u2019s big hitters.<\/p>\n

Germany may have won 3-1 in Cologne, but O\u2019Neill\u2019s men frustrated the home side for much of the game and are quietly confident they can mastermind a Windsor miracle with the help of their vociferous support.<\/p>\n

Tonight\u2019s game will be O\u2019Neill\u2019s 100th in charge and Hume is fired up to rock the Germans.<\/p>\n

When asked if his side could beat Germany and qualify for the World Cup, he said: \u201cYou have to believe always that anything is possible. If you don\u2019t believe, then you\u2019re not going to be able to do it. Do you know what I mean?<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery game I\u2019ve played at an international level, whether it\u2019s home or away, the fans are magnificent.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe atmosphere the other night was probably one of the best I\u2019ve played under for Northern Ireland. So, hopefully, they can match that tomorrow night and push us on in this group.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know how strong Germany are. We know that from Cologne when they won 3-1.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were in the game for a large part of it, but at that level, if you make mistakes or if you slow down, you\u2019ll get punished for it. So, we know the challenge that we face.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Trai<\/p>\n

Trai Hume has backed the Northern Ireland fans to make their voices heard in the clash with Germany<\/p>\n

If offered a point from the game, Hume replied: \u201cNo, you want three points. You want to win every game you play. That\u2019s all you can ask for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Germany may be clear favourites to win this qualifier, but Northern Ireland are now unbeaten in seven at Windsor Park.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a strong togetherness in the Northern Ireland panel which appears to give it a more club than international feel.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s always a difference between club and international,\u201d added Hume.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think if you ask anyone in the squad about coming away, everyone enjoys it. They look forward to it.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven the older lads and obviously the younger ones that obviously don\u2019t play as much. But they all come away. They all enjoy it.<\/p>\n

\n

You know the tactics and your job, but you have to go out there and do it properly while giving it 100 per cent.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cWe all get on with each other. So, you do have that wee bit of togetherness.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know the tactics and your job, but you have to go out there and do it properly while giving it 100 per cent.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are a good group and enjoy being around one another \u2013 we know how tough this game is going to be, and we just have to go out there and give it 100 per cent.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t give anything away, you have to go out there and perform.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought we were really good against Slovakia and were on the front foot, bringing the game to them, so we will see what tomorrow brings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hume\u2019s finish against Slovakia was a sweet volley, an execution legendary goalscorer David Healy would have been proud of.<\/p>\n

If the team is to conquer Germany, they must defend with conviction and be ruthless when chances arrive.<\/p>\n

\"Northern<\/p>\n

Northern Ireland defender Trai Hume is looking forward to the clash with Germany at Windsor Park<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know how good their full team is, not even just the front three. They\u2019re a strong opposition. That\u2019s our job as a defence,\u201d said Hume.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a team, the whole way from the front to the back, we have to try and nullify that. Try and not let them play to their strengths and try to play to our strengths. That\u2019s all you can do, really.<\/p>\n

\u201cTry to keep them away from moments where they have quality. We know they do, but you just try to nullify that.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou think of the game that\u2019s coming up and you don\u2019t look too far ahead. When you have enough points to qualify, that\u2019s when you can enjoy it.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore that happens, you just focus on the game that\u2019s coming up.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 23-year-old has taken his club and international career to another level, now reaping the benefits of a Premier League education alongside his Sunderland and Northern Ireland defensive partner Daniel Ballard.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think from the start, whenever I first came in, you get your way into the group,\u201d Hume said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe group has changed since the start. A lot of the older and more senior lads have probably dropped out, like Michael said, got injured or retired. You kind of had to step up. It wasn\u2019t really a choice, to be honest.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt probably happened naturally. I think we have a young group, but there are a lot of leaders in there and we just have to keep on improving.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think international football plays a big part and club football as well in terms of your development.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think whenever I first came into the squad under Ian Baraclough, I probably wasn\u2019t playing as much at Sunderland. He gave me my debut, but I didn\u2019t get many games.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhenever Michael came in, he put faith in me to obviously start and play games. Hopefully, I\u2019m just paying that off for him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An impressive 2-0 home win over Slovakia on Friday has fuelled belief inside and outside the camp that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":494576,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5310],"tags":[2000,299,1824,8543,8538,1514],"class_list":{"0":"post-494575","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-national-stadium-at-windsor-park","12":"tag-northern-ireland-football-team","13":"tag-world-cup"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115363432871079106","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494575","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=494575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494575\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}