Northern Ireland head to Tallinn on Sunday for a friendly against Estonia.
After the highs of Thursday’s World Cup qualifying win over Lithuania and before the crunch fixture against Switzerland on Wednesday, Ian Baraclough will get an opportunity to test some of his fringe players at Le Coq Arena.
Here, the PA news agency looks at the key talking points ahead of the game.
Burden or opportunity?
✈️ To Estonia (@ConorHazard1 had a hand in this ? ?) #GAWA pic.twitter.com/nbZH52piyN
— Northern Ireland (@NorthernIreland) September 3, 2021
The international triple-headers that have become a feature of football during the pandemic put a strain on everyone, but particularly on the smaller nations with a limited pool of players. Arguably Northern Ireland would be better off without Sunday’s game, instead trying to build directly on the 4-1 win in Lithuania by putting all their attention on Wednesday’s visit of the Swiss, but the fixture list has other ideas and they find themselves in Tallinn. Baraclough plans to give fringe players their chance and continue to blood youngsters, but those in his plans to start on Wednesday will take a seat on the bench.
Major changes planned
Another chance for the youngsters
Happy memories
One eye on Basel
#Nazionale ??
? Il trasferimento degli #Azzurri verso #Basilea ✈️
?️ ‘St. Jakob-Park’17.30 ?️ Conferenza stampa18.00 ⚽️ Allenamento#SvizzeraItalia #WCQ #Azzurri #VivoAzzurro pic.twitter.com/ULOJMfLc7m
— Nazionale Italiana ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (@Azzurri) September 4, 2021
While Northern Ireland are in friendly action, the Group C campaign continues elsewhere with Switzerland hosting Italy in Basel. Baraclough will be rooting for an Italy win, which would leave Northern Ireland two points behind the Swiss going into Wednesday’s match at Windsor Park. But the European champions were held to a home draw by Bulgaria on Thursday night, justifying Baraclough’s predictions that there will be more twists to come during this qualifying campaign.
