Trai Hume felt the pain of Thursday’s World Cup qualifying play-off loss to Italy, write PA.
Sunderland defender Trai Hume felt the pain of Thursday’s World Cup qualifying play-off loss to Italy as much as anyone else but believes it can help drive Northern Ireland in their bid to reach future tournaments.
Hume, who took the captain’s armband for an eighth time in Bergamo, made two goal-saving interventions in an impressive defensive display from the team, but four-time world champions Italy eventually prevailed through second-half goals from Sandro Tonali and Moise Kean.
Northern Ireland’s dream of ending a 40-year wait for a World Cup finals appearance is over, but there should still be plenty to look forward to given the average age of the starting line-up was just 22.5.
“The first thought is disappointment, of course,” Hume said. “I think we were in the game for large moments. I think we had a 10-15 minute period in each half where they created chances and there was a little bit of chaos, which obviously we didn’t want. “They scored at a good time in the second half and now we’re disappointed. But we’ll be looking into the future. There’s experience that we need to learn from.
“The team’s still young and we’re only going to get better. It’s one of those experiences that you have to accept even though it’s hard and it’s disappointing. But I have no doubt that we’ll learn from it and we’re going to get better.”
Liverpool’s Conor Bradley, Hume’s Sunderland team-mate Dan Ballard and Preston midfielder Ali McCann were all notable injury absentees in Bergamo, and the loss of key players at key moments has hurt Northern Ireland throughout qualifying.
Squad depth remains a concern for Michael O’Neill but they can take encouragement from the campaign as a whole given strong performances home and away against Germany, and an impressive home win over Slovakia.
“I think it’s been a good campaign,” the 24-year-old Hume added. “I think we’ve taken strides compared to where we were a couple of years ago. “We’re getting used to each other and we’re going to get better. We were missing key players (on Thursday) and we were missing key players throughout the campaign. That’s football, but we just have to keep on improving.”
Next up is a friendly against Wales in Cardiff on Tuesday that neither side wants to be playing in – a meeting of two nations beaten in their semi-finals. Then comes the Nations League but many fans will already be thinking about next year’s Euro 2028 qualifying campaign – the draw for which will take place in Belfast in December – given the obvious progress made by this young side.
Hume is convinced this team will reach a major tournament in the near future. “I do, because we’re such a young side and we’ve shown throughout this campaign that we can go up against the best,” he said.
“We’ve played against good sides and we’ve shown that we can compete and even win games and draw games and even be close in games like this one. “Doing that with a young side that we have is only positive. We’re going to get better. With experience, you’ll manage your moments a little bit more. No doubt that we’re going to improve.”
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