Northern Ireland 0 - 2 Israel

Northern Ireland were made to pay for some wayward finishing as Israel snatched two late goals to claim all three points in a game dominated by the home side.

Michael O’Neill’s team penned their opponents in their own half for much of the evening but were left to rue a series of missed chances that were punished with clinical precision by the Israelis who move to second place in Group F, ahead of Portugal on goal difference. In contrast the North now face into a grim battle with Luxembourg and Azerbaijan to avoid finishing bottom of the group.

The visitors, fresh from their impressive 3-3 draw with Portugal, started brightly and nearly took the lead after four minutes when Swansea City’s Itay Schecter hit the post but gradually Chris Brunt and the industrious Sammy Clinigan began to get on top in midfield and the home side went on to control the rest of the half.

Steven Davis had a golden chance to open the scoring after half an hour but his shot was somehow saved by Dudu Aouate in the Israeli goal and Shane Ferguson’s follow up header was scrambled off the line.

The visitors goal continued to live a charmed life as shortly afterwards Gareth McAuley just failed to tee up his centre half partner, Jonny Evans, and the ball skidded across the six yard line and behind for a goal kick.

The second half saw Northern Ireland continue to press for an opener but the final ball was lacking and they were restricted to long range efforts with Steve Davis’s 20 yard attempt on the hour going closest but finding the side netting with Aouate beaten.

With thirteen minutes remaining Israel got the breakaway goal they were looking for through Lior Refaelov, who directed his shot into the top right-hand corner of the net from inside the box.

Six minutes later the victory was sealed as Jonny Evans failed to deal with a routine long ball and then compounded his error by allowing Schechter to wriggle his way past him on the bye-line before setting up Ben Basat to slot the ball into Roy Carroll’s left hand corner.

O’ Neill brought Paddy McCourt and David Healy on in the last quarter but it failed to add the requisite cutting edge to his team’s, at times, excellent build up play. The former Shamrock Rovers boss has vowed to expand the pool of players available to him but until he can find a top quality striker he will struggle to change the thirteen match winless run that has transpired under his tenure.

Northern Ireland: Roy Carroll; Daniel Lafferty, Gareth McAuley, Jonny Evans, Aaron Hughes; Shane Ferguson (Josh Magennis 72), Sammy Clingan (Paddy McCourt 79), Chris Brunt, Steven Davis, Niall McGinn; Martin Paterson (David Healy 83).
Subs not used: Alan Mannus, Michael McGovern, Ryan McGivern, Craig Cathcart, Alex Bruce, Grant McCann, Oliver Norwood, William McKay, Corey Evans.

Booked: Jonny Evans, Chris Brunt.

Israel: Dudu Aouate; Yuval Shpungin, Tal Ben Haim, Sheran Yeini, Rami Gershon; Eitan Tibi, Maor Melikson (Lior Refaelov 69), Bebars Natcho, Maharan Radi (Eran Zahavi 60), Ben Basat; Itay Schecter (Yossi Benayoun 86).
Subs not used: Ariel Harush, Dani Amos, Dekel Kinan, Gal Shish, Gal Alberman, Beram Keyal, Avi Rikan, Eliran Atar.

Booked: None

Referee: Hannes Kaasik (Estonia)

Attendance: 7,300

Extratime.ie man of the match: Sammy Clinigan (Northern Ireland).