How Michael O’Neill raised Northern Ireland’s game – in South America | Andy Hunter

A tour to play Chile and Uruguay three years ago helped Northern Ireland to shed their small-time mentality, reach Euro 2016 and earn this week’s two-leg World Cup play-off against Switzerland

A 10-day tour of South America before the 2014 World Cup has been understandably overlooked in the story of Northern Ireland’s extraordinary rise under Michael O’Neill. To those who stood by the manager at his lowest ebb, however, it was the trip that changed the Northern Ireland mindset entirely. They would play the warm-up act no more.

“In some respects that trip was the beginning of the new Northern Ireland,” reflects Patrick Nelson, chief executive of the Irish Football Association, ahead of Thursday’s World Cup play-off first leg against Switzerland in Belfast. He is well-placed to judge. Nelson was part of the Northern Ireland contingent for friendly defeats by Uruguay in Montevideo and Chile in Valparaiso three years ago, when O’Neill’s team were invited to join the South Americans’ preparations for Brazil despite finishing second from bottom of their qualifying group. Now, as one of the eight best runners-up in Europe, Northern Ireland are a play-off away from qualifying for back-to-back tournaments for the first time in their history.

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