Euro 2024 qualifying Group H, matchday four: Northern Ireland 0-1 Kazakhstan
BEING hit in the face – or lower – by a bat wouldn't have hurt Northern Ireland as much as the sucker punch Abat Aimbetov landed to snatch an undeserved victory for Kazakhstan.
The 27-year-old carried the ball from his own half past a limp challenge from Craig Cathcart and a mis-timed slide tackle from Paddy McNair before slotting coolly to the net in the 88th minute. Sadly, his aim was not a bit off and he struck for another stunning win, as he had done against Denmark.
Boos greeted the final whistle, after five minutes of added time during which NI did not look like producing a last-gasp leveller.
The overall display from Michael O'Neill's very understrength side was decent but decidedly uninspired.
The men in green had dominated the game, albeit only forcing one, admittedly superb save – but if they did not do enough to win then they definitely didn't deserve to lose.
NI had 13 attempts on goal, plus four blocked, compared to seven for Kazakhstan. The hosts had twice as many attacks, and twice as many corners.
The visitors did have two shots on target, to just that aforementioned one for Northern Ireland, but that strike from substitute Conor McMenamin was only kept out by a stunning save, and centre half Craig Cathcart also headed over a gaping goal.
Yet, as ever, the only stat that matters in sport was the final score-line, which meant a third defeat in four qualifier matches. With an away double-header to Slovenia and then the camel trek to central Asia to face the Kazakhs again, hopes of reaching Euro 2024 are surely almost over, even with six matches to go.
At least the re-building process of the team has already begun. Injury ruled out young Conor Bradley, so Trai Hume switched across to the right flank.
Isaac Price, who has just moved to Belgian side Standard Liege, looks a promising attacking midfielder and Shea Charles of Manchester City is a defensive midfielder of real class.
A host of senior players remained out, injured, but what remains missing, as so often, is a cutting edge.
Aimbetov had that, and he sliced Northern Ireland open, adding to the pain of the defeat by the same score-line in Denmark on Friday night, with a late 'leveller' ruled out by a VAR decision which took five minutes.
O'Neill made three changes from the starting line-up in Copenhagen. Cathcart returned from a knee problem to replace another CB, Ciaron Brown in the back three. In midfield, Jordan Thompson earned a start, with Dion Charles lining out up front in preference to Shayne Lavery. Price was again playing in an advanced role, but compared to Copenhagen this was much more 3-5-1-1 than 5-3-1-1.
Indeed the bulk of the first period was played in the Kazakhstan half, with Price well involved and Dion Charles busy harrying the visiting defence.
Ramazan Orazov was similarly lively for Kazakhstan when he got on the ball and he should have had an assist on the quarter hour when he sent centre-forward Maxim Samorodov into the penalty box. However, the youngest member of the Kazakh squad showed his inexperience – after stepping past Hume, then evading Paddy McNair, he somehow dragged his shot wide when it seemed easier to score.
There was an equally bad miss at the other end five minutes later, though. Price forced a corner with a shot which deflected and looped just wide. He took the flag kick himself, driving it deep, and when McNair nodded it back across the six-yard box there was Cathcart unmarked – but incredibly he headed over the bar.
The hosts continued to knock the ball about nicely but with insufficient pace or purpose to seriously trouble their opponents.
Indeed, apart from an Ali McCann header wide from a Price cut-back there was little of note until the last few moments of the half.
First Dion Charles chested the ball down before clipping a teasing cross that was just too high for George Saville to direct on target.
Then, with added time almost up, Kazakh captain Ashkat Tagybergen won the ball and pinged it long to Yan Vorogovskiy, popping up on the right. He held possession neatly then found Baktiyor Zainutdinov – but the CSKA Moscow man bent his shot narrowly wide, with Bailey Peacock-Farrell flat-footed.
Saville started the second half well, winning the ball high and whipping a tempting cross right across the face of goal, but there was no one to turn it into the net.
After that, the biggest roar came when Cathcart slid into a block tackle on Zainutdinov. Having lain down embarrassingly – perhaps embarrassed – this time he got up straight away, and had Kazakhstan's next effort on goal, firing over from long range.
Both sets of supporters tried to raise their players' games, but to little avail. Michael O'Neill was then forced to take off captain Evans, due to a shoulder injury, and went for an attacking alteration, sending on Conor McMenamin, who made an impressive impact.
That meant Hume dropping back a little on the right with the Glentoran wide-man ahead of him, and McMenamin soon delivered a decent cross, but Price could only fall theatrically rather than get close to it.
The new signing for Standard Liege has quickly become NI's go-to man for dead ball deliveries, and he sent a corner in on top of the goalkeeper, who swatted it away impressively. Yet a free kick following a foul on Shea Charles was far too high from Price.
A double substitution for the hosts saw Dale Taylor and Lavery on for McCann and Dion Charles, and Lavery soon had a shot on target, albeit one that was slowed down by a defensive block.
With NI now deploying a 4-3-3 system, they pushed increasingly hard for the breakthrough goal, and McMenamin almost got it with a sweeping left-shot from the right wing, but goalkeeper Igor Shatskiy flew through the air to tip it over.
His NI counterpart Peacock-Farrell then had to race far out of his goal to cut out a counter-attack, which he did calmly.
Kazakh boss Magomed Adiev seemed only to be running down the clock when he made a triple change in the 80th minute – but one of those brought on, Aimbetov, proved to be the difference.
Having come off the bench to score a famous winner at home to Denmark in March, he repeated that feat with his solo effort to send Kazakhstan joint top of the table.
In contrast, NI are six points off the pace, and almost certainly out of the race for qualification, having lost to a team still ranked outside the top 100 in the world.
Northern Ireland (3-5-1-1): Peacock-Farrell; McNair, Evans (capt) (McMenamin, 63), Cathcart; Hume, S Charles, McCann (Taylor, 72), Saville, Thompson (Brown, 84); Price; D Charles (Lavery, 72).
Kazakhstan (3-4-2-1): Shatskiy; Bystrov, Marochkin, Alip; Gabyshev (Skvortsov, 68), Beysebekov, Tagybergen (capt.) (Tapalov, 80), Vorogovskiy; Orazov (Astanov, 80), Zainutdinov (Kuat, 75); Samorodov (Aimbetov, 80).
Referee: Roi Reinshreiber (Israel).
Attendance: 18,002.
