A 4-2 defeat to Slovenia ended Northern Ireland’s hopes of winning Euro 2024, but Black Cats defender Hume impressed
Michael O’Neill highlighted Sunderland defender Trai Hume for praise despite Thursday’s 4-2 qualifying defeat to Slovenia. Their Euro 2024 hopes are all but over after the loss left them adrift towards the bottom of Group H.
A fourth straight defeat left a six-point gap between Sunday’s opponents Kazakhstan in fourth place and Northern Ireland in fifth, with nine points separating them from leaders Finland. Although not mathematically over, both the size of the deficit and the number of teams involved make it difficult to see a path to qualification.
However, O’Neill was quick to point out the positive performances from his side – including Black Cats full-back Hume, who continued his blossoming international career with another impressive display.
“I thought Trai Hume, Shea Charles were excellent, Isaac Price getting his first goal, they’re all real positives,” O’Neill said. “That’s three young players who could all have played for the under-21s. Some of the senior boys put in a good performance as well – George Saville had a very good game as well.
“We will look at the game and some of things we did that were poor in the game but we’ll focus as well on a lot of things we did well and we’ll be ready to give it a go again on Sunday night.”
Qualification now looks very remote, but O’Neill wants to see his side develop in their remaining games.
“We’ve just got to finish as high as possible,” O’Neill added. “Qualification now, I think if we won all five games (remaining) it wouldn’t be enough. I’m not going to sit here and say ‘While it’s mathematically possible…’ and things like that.
“We’re trying to develop a team here. It’s a young team, a team that’s ravaged by injuries. Our chance in this group probably was to get momentum in the early part and we didn’t do that unfortunately. Now we’ve got to make sure we finish the group strong and so we can carry that forward for the preparations for the next tournament.”