NI find no way past Belarus in Nations League draw

Northern Ireland endured a frustrating Nations League 0-0 draw with Belarus despite a host of first-half chances.

With Luxembourg and Bulgaria having also played a goalless stalemate earlier in the day, Michael O’Neill’s side went into the behind-closed-doors game in western Hungary with an opportunity to end the night top of Group C3.

They would force Fedor Lapoukhov into a string of smart in the opening half, and twice had goals chalked off, but could not make their superiority count.

And those struggles in front of goal loomed all the larger when, in a much tighter second half, chances were few and far between with neither side able to find a winner.

Jamie Reid’s frustrating first-half

Northern Ireland came into the game with Sheffield Wednesday keeper Pierce Charles making his debut but it was his opposite number Fedor Lapoukhov who was by far the busier of the two stoppers

Indeed, the first 45 minutes developed into something of a personal battle between the Dinamo Minsk man and Jamie Reid.

The Stevenage man, who scored on debut against Romania back in March, was making his return to the side after a blood clot in his leg saw him miss last month’s games against Luxembourg and Bulgaria.

Four times the 30-year-old had decent sights at goal, but four times Lapoukhov proved his equal.

Reid’s ninth minute header had seemed destined for the corner, only for the keeper to claw the ball away. While Conor Bradley turned in the rebound, he did so from an offside position.

Put through ten minutes later by Trai Hume’s long pass, Reid beat the offside trap but Lapoukhov got a right leg to his effort. When another of his efforts was beaten away, then recycled back into the box only for his subsequent header to again be saved, Reid must have wondered if it would be his day.

With Paddy McNair, whose seven international goals were more coming into the game than the rest of Northern Ireland’s starting side combined, also missing a free header and Eoin Toal striking the inside of the post, Michael O’Neill may well have wondered the same.

NI left to rue first-half profligacy

When play resumed, again the first chance fell to Reid, the striker twisting and turning in the box only to this time see his shot blocked by Zakhar Volkov.

Having had so much of the first half their own way, however, it would prove to be a different game after the restart.

With Belarus coming more and more into the contest, although still not drawing any meaningful saves from Northern Ireland’s debutant between the posts, O’Neill’s side were finding it harder and harder to create the kinds of openings that had arrived with regularity in the opening half.

A counter led by Isaac Price allowed Bradley to drag a shot wide of the far post, while Dion Charles was introduced to provide another physical presence up front.

With 15 minutes to go, the Bolton man was joined in the forward line by Ado Den Haag’s Lee Bonis, the former Larne striker taking the place of Reid on the occasion of his first cap.

But neither side were able to manufacture any late opportunities – indeed NI did not have a shot on target in the second half – with the draw leaving Northern Ireland trailing both Belarus and Bulgaria by a point in the table before Tuesday’s meeting with the latter in Belfast on Tuesday.