Charles scores twice as NI win on O'Neill's return

Michael O'Neill's second spell as manager got off to a winning start as Dion Charles gave Northern Ireland a 2-0 away victory in San Marino.

NI got the win they were expected to as they began their Euro 2024 bid against the world's lowest-ranked side.

O'Neill's men host Finland at Windsor Park on Sunday.

The Finns lost away to top seeds Denmark in Wednesday evening's other Group H encounter, while Slovenia had earlier opened the group with a 2-1 away win over Kazakhstan

A chorus of 'We love you Michael, we do' belted out from the ever-vocal 1,000-strong Northern Ireland travelling support as they welcomed back the manager who led them to the Euro 2016 finals during his successful first tenure that ended abruptly in 2020 due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Having won just four times in 24 competitive matches under Ian Baraclough since then, San Marino provided inviting opponents for O'Neill's return as they are now without a win in all of their 167 competitive outings and sitting in 211th in the Fifa rankings.

Youngsters Shea Charles and Conor Bradley both delivered hugely mature and impressive performances for Northern Ireland, while Everton youngster Isaac Price joined Cameron McGeehan in making a senior international debut in the second half.

Charles' opener arrived in the 24th minute and it was a finish applied with the swagger and technique of a man high in confidence in front of goal, having scored 18 times for Bolton Wanderers so far this season.

Man City teenager Shea Charles, who looked composed throughout while deputising for injured captain Steven Davis in the deep-lying midfield role - found the ever-willing Conor Washington with a fine pass into the right channel and he delivered an excellent first-time low cross for his strike partner.

Charles had to watch closely as the ball bounced before arriving at him at the back post before controlling the finish superbly to open his account for Northern Ireland on his 14th cap.

Charles headed home his second 10 minutes after the break, once again being in the right place at the right time to meet an excellent Jamal Lewis cross from the left with a close-range header that seemed to wrong-foot Benedettini who got an outstretched hand on the ball but could not keep it out.

It led to choruses of 'Dion's on fire' - a twist on an old favourite that many will no doubt remember from the Euro 2016 finals - and proved definitively how important it is for an international team to have a striker scoring goals regularly at club level.

Charles' opening goal was very timely for the visiting team, who until then had been well on top but were frustrated as a number of set-piece moves failed to come off while a few players seemed to have problems staying up as they slipped to the ground.

Paddy McNair had the only significant chance before the first goal came - apart from a scare from the hosts when Filippo Berardi went through and forced a save from Bailey Peacock-Farrell before being flagged offside - but his downward back-post header from a George Saville cross was well saved by goalkeeper Elia Benedettini.

The nerve-settling effect of taking the lead was clearly visible as O'Neill's men began creating a number of good chances, with Saville blazing over from a fine Bradley cross and Dion Charles just not able to stretch far enough to prod home a beautiful, inviting cross from his namesake Shea.

However, the best chance for Northern Ireland to double their lead fell to wing-back Lewis just before the break but the Newcastle United man unsuccessfully attempted to turn Dion Charles' perfect cross on to his left foot, when he looked set to shoot with his right in front of goal.

The second half somewhat petered out during the final half hour, though there was a scare for Northern Ireland when Nicola Nanni went through and scored for the visitors in the 67th minute, but the flag went up for offside once his shot found the net.