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Northern Ireland will continue their Euro 2024 qualifying campaign when Slovenia visit Windsor Park on Tuesday night. Here, the PA news agency looks at the key talking points ahead of the game. Momentum Saturday’s 3-0 win over San Marino was a baby step for Michael O’Neill’s struggling Northern Ireland side but having finally ended a five-game losing streak they will be desperate to build on that and give their fans something to cheer at home. Saturday was only Northern Ireland’s third win in 18 at Windsor Park, where home form was once so key to their hopes in qualifying. As they begin to look ahead to future campaigns, the need to rebuild the fortress is obvious. Injury concerns O’Neill offered up only one bit of team news in Monday’s press conference but it was potentially a hugely significant one as defender Daniel Ballard is suffering with tightness in his thigh. With Paddy McNair suspended after his late booking on Saturday, O’Neill has limited options at the back if Ballard is missing, which might mean Shea Charles dropping back, Trai Hume moving inside or see Eoin Toal handed a challenging debut. A different challenge A win was the only acceptable result against a San Marino side ranked 207th and last in the world, but Slovenia represent a very different challenge. Matjaz Kek’s side would have been one Northern Ireland hoped to get the better of at the start of the campaign but they come to Belfast as the leaders in Group H and challenging for a place at next summer’s finals. Defensive test When looking back on Northern Ireland’s qualifying run to date, the defeat in Ljubljana stands out and not in a good way. This campaign has seen them suffer four 1-0 defeats – close games in which they had a chance to take something right until the end. The exception, bar the victories over San Marino, was the 4-2 defeat in Ljubljana, where they struggled to contain Slovenia’s exciting front pair of Benjamin Sesko and Andraz Sporar. Even if Northern Ireland’s defence was at full strength, handling Sesko and company would be a real test. Casement protests Saturday’s match at Windsor Park was marked by persistent chanting from a number of fans opposed to the building of Casement Park, the GAA stadium in south west Belfast which is due to host games at Euro 2028. Even if a project bogged down by delays and questions over funding is completed in time, many Northern Ireland fans have said they will never attend a match at a venue named after an Irish revolutionary and located in predominantly nationalist west Belfast. O’Neill has said he wants fans to get behind the project but added that he respects all opinions. Expect them to be heard again. Read More The 2028 Olympics could be game-changing for squash – Gina Kennedy Jonny Evans enjoying new lease of life after fearing career could be over ECB chief Richard Gould hails cricket’s addition to 2028 Olympics as ‘fantastic’ Rassie Erasmus says South Africa do not buy in to criticism of opponents England History shows slow starts can damage a team’s prospects of winning the World Cup Injury, age or inaction? A closer look at England’s early struggles at World Cup

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Jonny Evans is back at Manchester United and starting games under Erik ten Hag, but the Northern Ireland defender thought his career might have been coming to an end last season. Evans, 35, made a surprise return to his boyhood club in the summer after his contract with relegated Leicester ended, initially on a short-term deal that allowed him to play during their pre-season campaign before he signed a one-year contract. It came after an injury-ravaged campaign with the Foxes in which Evans was limited to just 14 club appearances, struggling to get over a persistent calf problem that left him wondering if his time was up. Instead, he has started two of United’s last three Premier League matches, helping earn wins in both. “I went through a stage last year where I started thinking maybe it is coming to an end,” Evans said as he prepared to captain Northern Ireland in Tuesday’s Euro 2024 qualifier against Slovenia. “There’s no doubt I did have those thoughts. At the time I couldn’t get over injuries and every time I came back I was breaking down. “I had lots of people telling me there’s no way you’re close to finishing, but you have to prove that to yourself and I feel like I’ve been able to do that. “Every time you complete a match you think, ‘There’s another one, I can do that’, and sometimes you just have to confirm that to yourself. I’ve been pleased I’ve been able to go through that process and I feel in a good place.” I went through a stage last year where I started thinking maybe it is coming to an end Jonny Evans Northern Ireland will need Evans on Tuesday as they prepare to face Slovenia’s potent attack with an injury concern hanging over Daniel Ballard. The Sunderland defender started Saturday’s 3-0 win over San Marino alongside Evans but sat out training on Monday due to tightness in his thigh, handing Michael O’Neill a potentially significant headache given Paddy McNair is suspended after his late booking at the weekend. “He’d be a big loss,” O’Neill said of Ballard. “Obviously it presents an opportunity for somebody else. “Paddy’s suspension is a blow as well given the referee booked him 10 seconds before he blew the final whistle. It was something we didn’t need. If the situation arises I think we’ve got good enough cover in the squad and it gives someone else the opportunity.” Linfield’s Daniel Finlayson made up the numbers in training on Monday, but O’Neill may yet call in cover from the under-21 squad. Northern Ireland enjoyed a morale-boosting win at the weekend but know beating minnows San Marino is just a small step given the problems that have doomed this qualifying campaign, and Slovenia will represent a far bigger challenge. Last month’s 4-2 defeat in Ljubljana stood out in a campaign where Northern Ireland have been on the wrong end of four 1-0 losses. While those were tight games in which O’Neill’s side always had a chance of taking something, Slovenia scored early and put the game beyond Northern Ireland. O’Neill partly attributed that to a change in defensive system which had been dictated to some degree by the players he had available to him at different stages in the campaign, but he knows they will need to do a better job of marshalling forwards Benjamin Sesko and Andraz Sporar at Windsor Park. “We didn’t defend well enough (and) we gave them a dream start with the goal we gave up early on,” he said. “But I think the reaction in the game was very good and we created a number of chances and felt aggrieved we didn’t score more than the two we did. “They have some very good footballers and they were good on the night. Tomorrow hopefully we’ll see a team that is better equipped to deal with this sort of game.” Read More The 2028 Olympics could be game-changing for squash – Gina Kennedy ECB chief Richard Gould hails cricket’s addition to 2028 Olympics as ‘fantastic’ Rassie Erasmus says South Africa do not buy in to criticism of opponents England History shows slow starts can damage a team’s prospects of winning the World Cup Injury, age or inaction? A closer look at England’s early struggles at World Cup Four memorable clashes between England and Italy held at Wembley

Serial qualifiers? It’s still too early to say, but for any Scotland supporter who cannot remember the 1998 World Cup in France or the years before, these are dizzying times indeed. The Tartan Army are heading to Euro 2024, their second successive appearance at the European Championships, and just their second men’s major international tournament in 25 years. Hampden has rediscovered its roar, and it is set to carry Scotland on their march to Germany next summer; tens of thousands will make the journey –many had already booked their tickets before this weekend – and it is all thanks, by and large, to Steve Clarke. If Clarke has brought the good times back, it is worth remembering the dark days he inherited on his appointment in 2019. Scotland were barely able to fill half of Hampden as their men’s major tournament drought extended past two decades. A 3-0 defeat to Kazakhstan proved to be the end for Clarke’s predecessor, Alex McLeish, and rock bottom for Scotland; there was no hope, and no hint of the immense progress Clarke has since been able to achieve with what are still fairly limited resources. Automatic qualification from a tricky Group A was secured with two games to go, owed to a phenomenal start that featured the stunning wins against Spain at Hampden and Norway in Oslo. After the ultimately disappointing performances at the Covid-delayed Euro 2020 finals and defeat to an inspired Ukraine in the play-offs for the 2022 World Cup, Scotland took to their task with focus and clarity, forged from the cohesion and spirit Clarke has brought to the national team over the course of his tenure. If Scotland are famously one of those sides that always do things the hard way, progress to Euro 2024 has been serene by comparison. Under the guidance of the calm and measured Clarke, Scotland has become an environment where players want to play, mirroring a club side with the relationships within the group and the organisation of their approach. There can be no doubting anyone’s commitment to the Scotland cause – and that has not always been the case in recent years – while Clarke’s management style is to never allow anyone to get too high or feel too low. For all that Scotland’s 2-0 victory over Spain in March was a memorable night at Hampden, the key to qualification was that Clarke ensured his squad kept their feet on the ground when there was still a job to be done. Clarke would be the first to point out that further improvements are still required ahead of Euro 2024 – England’s performance and Jude Bellingham’s class at Hampden last month made that perfectly clear – but Scotland will head to Germany believing they can be much more competitive than when they returned from the international wilderness. For one, that long wait, with the emotions it brought with it, is over. Scotland’s squad is settled and largely unchanged from the summer of 2021, and Clarke’s team have the experience of a major tournament to build on. And, as anyone who celebrated a significant birthday, a graduation, or a wedding will remember, the summer of 2021 was a strange time, with the UK only just coming out of spells of Covid lockdown. Scotland’s return required the full experience of the Tartan Army, especially with two games at Hampden and a third against England at Wembley, but a long-awaited party was dampened. Germany will bring full numbers and see Scotland at full voice; it will undoubtedly help a team who will aim to punch above their weight. While there is a notion that successive appearances at the European Championships are a sign of some sort of Scottish “golden generation”, the reality is somewhat different. This Scotland squad certainly has talent and quality, but it is also one with gaps and holes, and is far weaker than the results under Clarke suggest. But the 60-year-old has found solutions and made improvements with the options at his disposal, while creating a culture within the group that has lifted standards and expectations. In simple terms, it is astute management at every level. Scotland, for a while, seemed cursed by having two world-class players in Andy Robertson and Kieran Tierney, but both being left-backs. There is now a genuine partnership between Robertson and Tierney within Clarke’s system, which is built upon a back three that has kept four clean sheets in six games so far in qualifying. Angus Gunn has made an assured start at goalkeeper after taking over from the veterans David Marshall and Craig Gordon, while Aaron Hickey represents a significant upgrade on Stephen O’Donnell at right wing-back – which was another problem position at Euro 2020. The lack of a world-class striker – the Tartan Army would accept at least one Premier League-calibre option, with both Lyndon Dykes and Che Adams plying their trade in the Championship this season – has been mitigated as well. For all that Dykes and Adams have always put in huge shifts when leading the line, often a thankless task in any case, Scotland’s goals have been scored by another player with whom Clarke has performed miracles – Scott McTominay. Underappreciated and perennially dismissed at Manchester United, and used as a centre-back at Euro 2020 as his country struggled to fit him into the side, McTominay has been the revelation of Scotland’s campaign. Deployed now as an attacking midfielder and given licence to break forward into the box, McTominay’s return of six goals in as many games has been beyond anyone’s expectations – as many as Erling Haaland. That McTominay’s success has come within the organisation and structure Clarke has installed is no coincidence; international tournaments often show how countries can rise as a collective, and Morocco, Switzerland and Wales are also recent examples that will give Scotland hope that they can extend their trip to Germany by reaching the knockout stages. “I said after Euro 2020 that we wanted to be serial qualifiers again, and reaching successive Euro finals shows the progress we’ve made,” said Clarke, typically level even as Scotland’s progress was confirmed. “We will raise a glass tonight to celebrate, but then it’s back to work tomorrow in preparation for our friendly against France.” There will have been many back home, however, who will have instead been raising a glass to him, much longer into the night. Read More Scotland qualify for Euro 2024 after Spain result confirms place Andy Robertson injury: Scotland provide update on dislocated shoulder against Spain Steve Clarke congratulates Scotland players for becoming ‘serial qualifiers’ after reaching Euro 2024

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