Justin Devenny of Northern Ireland celebrates scoring his team's third goal with teammates during the FIFA World Cup 2026 qualifier match between Luxembourg and Northern Ireland at Stade de Luxembourg on September 04, 2025 in Luxembourg, Luxembourg.placeholder image
Justin Devenny of Northern Ireland celebrates scoring his team's third goal with teammates during the FIFA World Cup 2026 qualifier match between Luxembourg and Northern Ireland at Stade de Luxembourg on September 04, 2025 in Luxembourg, Luxembourg. | Getty Images
One of Crystal Palace’s rising stars continued to impress on the international stage with a goal for his country on Thursday night
Crystal Palace defender Justin Devenny scored his first goal for Northern Ireland as the Green and White Army recorded a 3-1 win in Luxembourg on Thursday night.
The 21-year-old was only making his sixth appearance for Northern Ireland but was on hand to net his side’s third and final goal as they started their World Cup qualification campaign with three points.
Group A was blown open on Thursday night as favourites Germany were beaten 2-0 by Slovakia. Devenny and the rest of the Northern Ireland squad face Germany at the RheinEnergieSTADION in Cologne.
Northern Ireland took the lead after seven minutes when Jamie Reid hammered the ball into the bottom corner after Isaac Price had missed an early penalty. Aiman Dardari levelled for the hosts on 30 minutes with a fine finish.
Shea Charles of Southampton put the visitors back in front with a deflected strike less than a minute into the second half. Devenny then popped up with the decisive third goal after Seid Korac had been sent off.
Justin Devenny outshines Conor Bradley
In the player ratings by the Northern Irish media, Devenny was handed an 8/10 for his performance in Luxembourg - as he outshone the Green and White Army’s star player Conor Bradley.
The Liverpool man was given 7/10 for his display. Devenny almost scored on the stroke of half time with a thunderous free-kick from about 30 yards that rattled the crossbar.
Michael O’Neill impressed by second half response
“We worked hard this week on our structure and our build-up play,” Northern boss O’Neill said. “We won’t be a team that will keep the ball and play through the opposition’s press particularly well, we’re better when we play forward quicker and earlier.
“We stopped doing that (in the first half), we didn’t win enough of the one-v-one situations, we didn’t compete enough…
“We were a little bit sluggish after we scored in the first half. We told them they needed to lift it, basically. We needed to play with the structure that we talked about this week.
“I think they got the message clearly at half-time and we got the result and the performance that we wanted in the second half.”
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