North's kids all grown up and ready for Danish return
Northern Ireland will return to Copenhagen next week a little under two years since their near miss in a Euro 2024 qualifier that hinted at brighter things to come.
Callum Marshall thought he had scored a stoppage-time equaliser on his debut before VAR intervened to deny the teenager and Northern Ireland in a 1-0 defeat in June 2023.
But in what was only Michael O'Neill's fourth game back in charge, a young Northern Ireland side – in which Conor Bradley, Shea Charles and Isaac Price all started as teenagers – competed well against a vastly experienced Denmark side away from home.
A few months later Northern Ireland won the reverse fixture 2-0 in Belfast, the start of a run of results in which they won six of 11 games, including the thumping 5-0 victory over Bulgaria as they topped their Nations League group.
This weekend's return to the Parken Stadium is another opportunity to measure progress.
"The team now would look very different now on paper," O'Neill said as he recalled that last visit to Denmark. "We were asking a lot of those players. Now we're two years down the line.
"If you look at the version of Isaac Price we have now compared to two years ago, Shea Charles, Conor Bradley, Trai Hume, and Daniel Ballard, there's a lot that's come from those two years.
"There's been a lot of development in those players, both at club and international level. From that perspective the younger players are more ready for this type of game.
"On the other side, we don't have Jonny Evans, for example, in our squad, and we've lost a little bit of experience around those younger players. But those young players are now firmly established in our team."
The Denmark game and the home friendly against Iceland that follows will serve as final dress rehearsals before the World Cup qualifying campaign starts with a trip to Luxembourg in September.
While Denmark are ranked 21st in the world, Iceland are three places below Northern Ireland in 74th.
Having reached their first major tournament when they played at Euro 2016, reaching the quarter-finals, before playing at the following World Cup, Iceland have had to rebuild, and O'Neill sees similarities with Northern Ireland's own situation.
"Any team comes to a natural end and I think they've gone through that experience, a little but like ourselves going through a transitional period, to try and redevelop and establish themselves again.
"They were brilliant at being that underdog and making life difficult for some very, very big countries.
"You can only do it with the players you have but they are always a very difficult team to play.
"We'll come into from a tough game in Copenhagen and we'll have to be ready to give a good performance here at home. It's important we can keep our level in front of our own fans so that will be a challenge we'll set ourselves."
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The 42
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