Pierce Charles equals seven-year record as Northern Ireland handed World Cup qualification boost

Pierce Charles' senior international career may only be three games old but he already has an impressive stat to his name.

After the teenager's shut out against Belarus on Friday night he became the first Northern Ireland goalkeeper to keep three successive clean sheets since Michael McGovern in 2017!

Charles had impressed in his opening two games against Belarus and Bulgaria last month and he retained his place between the sticks for the final two games in the Nations League despite Bailey Peacock-Farrell's return to the squad.

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"Two clean sheets, good distribution, good temperament, so I don't think that was a difficult decision," said Michael O'Neill as he explained his decision to hand him another start in Friday's 2-0 win. "I had a good chat with Bailey and he knows he has to get back into his club side. He's not maybe had the best start to his situation at Birmingham but we haven't lost any faith in Bailey.

"He's an experienced goalkeeper, that's what he has over all the other goalkeepers especially at international level, but Pierce hasn't done anything to merit being taken out of the team. None of the goalies have done enough to warrant that decision either."

Northern Ireland face Luxembourg tonight with top spot in the group not only up for grabs but also a potential 2026 World Cup play-off spot.

There will be 16 UEFA countries at the tournament in Canada, Mexico and the USA in two years time. The 12 winners from the qualification groups will progress with the runners-up joining the four best Nations League group winners, based on the overall ranking in the Nations League table, that failed to finish in the top two to take part in the play-offs.

Northern Ireland are currently well-placed to secure one of those spots but O'Neill's focus is only on the game in Luxembourg.

"We will play a good team tonight and I think Luxembourg have been unlucky in the group, they've just had narrow defeats.," he said. "I know the coach well and he's been in place there a long time...nearly 12 years and I think they've really developed as a country and as a team.

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"We don't expect an easy game not at all. We got ahead here early against them which helped us but it will be a difficult type of game out there. The advantages of this competition for us is that we know exactly if we win the group, then we will be a group of five and we don't have to deal with the play-off situation in March with some of the other teams.

"Then we can concentrate on World Cup qualifying knowing that we may or may not have some chance of a play-off further down the line. We can only do what we can do, which is to win the group and then leave it to the footballing gods after that."

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