Poland spoils Northern Ireland's first European Championship match
Northern Ireland lost their first ever game in the European Championship after they lost 1-0 to Poland in the opening game of group C.
12 June 2016, 8:12pm
Warren Zammit
Warren Zammit
1 min read
Poland's Arkadiusz Milik celebrating his goal against Northern Ireland
A goal scored by Milik six minutes after the beginning of the second half gave Poland a narrow 1-0 win over Northern Ireland who were making their first appearance in a European Championship match.
This was the first win for Poland at a Euro finals. Although Poland dominated the game, Northern Ireland well organised defence made it difficult for them to open the score. In fact, they had to wait till the 51st minute when Blaszczykowski pass from the right flank found Milik who finished behind McGovern.
This result means that Northern Ireland face a struggle to go through the last sixteen since they now need to gain points from their games against Germany and Ukraine.
Poland line-up (4-4-2): Szczesny; Piszczek, Glik, Pazdan, Jedrzejczyk; Blaszczykowski, Krychowiak, Maczynski, Kapustka; Milik, Lewandowski.
Northern Ireland line-up: Northern Ireland (5-3-1-1): McGovern; McLaughlin, Cathcart, Jonny Evans, McAuley, Ferguson; Norwood, McNair, Baird; Davis, Lafferty.
Yellow cards
Kapustka (Poland), Cathcart (N.Ireland), Piszczek (Poland).
Referee
Hategan (Romania)
