Northern Ireland just love being the underdogs.
No mater how many times they were written off during qualifying, the Green and White Army topped their group and earned their place at Euro 2016.
Despite coming into the tournament on the back of a 12-game unbeaten run, nobody gave Michael O’Neill’s side much of a change in France this summer.
A group featuring World Champions Germany and dark horses Poland was always going to be a difficult task, but Norn Iron supporters and players alike will have targeted their second group game against Ukraine as one they should be getting a result from.
And after making five changes for the game – including dropping top scorer Kyle Lafferty – the Ulstermen put in a convincing performance in the hail and saw off their opponents with a 2-0 win.
With three points in the bag, Northern Ireland now have a decent chance of qualifying for the next round as one of the best third-place teams if they manage to get a result against Germany on Tuesday.
While many thought that O’Neill’s men might struggle to claim their first tournament win since 1982, others were adamant they wouldn’t even claim a point.
One such commentator was former England international Ray Wilkins, who has had a rough time of it when it comes to predictions as of late.
Former unified WBA and IBF super-bantamweight champion – and proud Northern Irishman – Carl Frampton was all too happy to remind ‘Football Expert’ Wilkins of his inaccurate prediction.
Dead on Ray pic.twitter.com/zniDeTkEZ9
— Carl Frampton MBE (@RealCFrampton) June 16, 2016
