Young West Ham United forward Callum Marshall helped Northern Ireland make a winning start to their 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign on Thursday evening.
Michael O'Neill's troops burst out of the blocks in their opening UEFA Group A clash in Luxembourg, with Stevenage's Jamie Reid opening the scoring within seven minutes.
Aiman Dardari equalised for the hosts to make it 1-1 at half-time, but Shea Charles of Southampton regained the advantage for the visitors and after Seid Korać was sent off for a second bookable offence, Marshall entered the fray for the final 21 minutes at the Stade de Luxembourg.
Seconds after Marshall's introduction, Northern Ireland made the most of their numerical advantage, with Crystal Palace's Justin Devenny firing in a low shot to make it 3-1, which ultimately proved enough for the three points.
Next up for Marshall and his teammates is an exciting trip to Cologne to face Niclas Füllkrug's Germany (Sunday 7 September, 7.45pm BST), who fell to a disappointing 2-0 defeat away at Slovakia in their opening UEFA Group A game, courtesy of Dávid Hancko and David Strelec strikes.
Hammers No11 Füllkrug was an unused substitute for Julian Nagelsmann's four-time world champions, who will be looking to quickly bounce back to winning ways on home turf.
Elsewhere, Academy midfielder Gabriel Caliste completed 77 minutes of Mauritius' 2-0 home defeat to Cape Verde in Group D of CAF World Cup qualifying.
The 18-year-old was handed a start by boss Guillaume Moullec on his seventh appearance for his country, but couldn't prevent goals from Jovane Cabral and Diney earning the group-leading visitors the full share of the spoils.
With three games of qualifying to play, Mauritius sit fifth out of six teams in Group D and are unable to qualify directly for the World Cup finals. Though they are realistically out of reach of second spot and possible advancement to the second round, they will be looking to earn a second win of their campaign when they travel to Angola on Tuesday 9 September (8pm BST).
