Northern Ireland v Germany, Thurs 5th October

Norman Whiteside scored the winner against West Germany in Hamburg.

Jimmy continued: “I can remember Martin O’Neill feeding a ball to Ian Stewart after we had been defending. He beat one player, then two and all of a sudden he was about 20 yards from their goal. “Ian got a shot in that was saved by (West Germany goalkeeper) Harald Schumacher. The ball reached Paul Ramsey, who had a shot. It wasn’t a great strike but it was goal-bound and Norman (Whiteside) was able to get a touch on it and then fire it in.” As in Belfast a resolute defensive display from Northern Ireland ensured they got the result they wanted in Hamburg. There were a few hairy moments along the way, with Nicholl clearing a shot from Lothar Matthaus off Pat Jennings’ goal-line at one stage. “At that point I was thinking ‘how long is there to go and how long can we keep this up?’ As the game went on there was a real shift in the atmosphere. Their fans had been right behind West Germany at the start. But then there were groans from the Germans when their team misplaced a pass. “That kind of atmosphere played into our hands because there’s always the objective in football of keeping the opposition crowd quiet or having them get on their own players’ backs.” Unfortunately, West Germany’s 2-1 victory over Albania four days later saw them qualify for Euro 1984 at Northern Ireland’s expense. “We only had ourselves to blame (for failing to qualify) in the end,” lamented Jimmy. “We were able to raise our performances for West Germany, but it was the defeats to Austria and Turkey and the draw with Albania that ultimately cost us.”

“When you go a goal up early on against a strong opposition you know you’re going to spend a fair amount of the match defending. When you have the lead though your determination grows and our team performance was magnificent that evening.” The 1-0 victory over West Germany gave Northern Ireland their first points of the Euro 1984 qualifying campaign, having lost their opening fixture away to Austria. A 0-0 draw in Albania in December 1982 was followed by home victories over Turkey, Albania and Austria to put Northern Ireland top of Group 6. However, a 1-0 defeat in Turkey in October 1983 coupled with West Germany’s 5-1 hammering of the Turks a few weeks later saw the Germans leapfrog the boys in green to head the group. With only the group winners allocated a place at Euro 1984, Billy Bingham’s team travelled to West Germany in November 1983 knowing they realistically needed a win to stand any chance of qualifying for the tournament. Both nations were tied on nine points ahead of the match, but the Germans had a better goal difference and still had a home game with Albania to come, while it was the final qualification fixture for Northern Ireland. “It was typical Northern Ireland in many respects in that when we are up against it we tend to get a result and a performance,” said Jimmy. Five minutes into the second half at the Volksparkstadion in Hamburg, Norman Whiteside opened the scoring with one of nine goals he netted for Northern Ireland in 38 matches between 1982 and 1989.

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