NI women open World Cup play-off vs Portugal — SkimNews
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- Northern Ireland's women begin their World Cup play-off campaign at home to Portugal on Friday at Inver Park (19:30 BST), with further rounds against Croatia or Iceland and likely an inter-continental play-off standing between them and Brazil.
- Portugal, ranked 28 places higher than Northern Ireland in FIFA rankings, inflicted two defeats on NI in Euro 2025 qualifying — 4-0 away and 2-1 at home in 2024 — and are described as 'very technical' by NI defender Natalie Johnson.
- Michael McArdle's squad has been hit by a spate of injuries and includes five new faces, with Birmingham City defender Rebecca Holloway one of the few survivors from the squad that qualified for Euro 2022, NI's first major tournament.
- Northern Ireland's men's team drew 0-0 with Georgia on Monday, staying top of their Nations League group with 8 points from 4 games without conceding — a performance McArdle's players watched in camp and cited as inspiration for playing 'with no fear.'
- Norwich City defender Natalie Johnson said 'nothing is impossible' and that the team 'absolutely believe these games are winnable,' while Holloway pointed to the narrowing margin against Portugal as evidence NI is 'slowly closing the gap.'
Why it matters: NI is one of the lowest-ranked European sides in the play-offs, and a single defeat ends the Brazil dream — but Holloway's own evidence that a 4-0 Euro 2025 qualifying loss became a 2-1 home defeat in 2024 is the concrete signal that the gap to Portugal is shrinking, not the rhetoric.
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