Two down, two to go.
In years gone by, the final whistle would have blown in Northern Ireland’s Nations League game with Hungary and the players would have been heading back to their clubs.
Instead, Michael O’Neill and his squad are back on the road to Slovakia to face Ukraine in the extended international window.
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For 2026, the September and October breaks have been amalgamated into one 16-day window, with four fixtures instead of two.
Northern Ireland have made a strong start to the campaign with four points from two matches, but it isn’t without its challenges.
But how does it impact a nation like Northern Ireland, who do not have the squad depth or resources of some of Europe’s heavy hitters?
For Northern Ireland in particular, the schedule has been gruelling.
Their Nations League campaign started with a 5,000-mile round trip to Georgia, where Shea Charles’ 99th-minute winner snatched a late victory.
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For that game, O’Neill, his staff and players had stayed in the BST time zone instead of trying to adapt to the three-hour time difference.
With a short turnaround before Monday’s game against Hungary – their first home match in 315 days – the squad flew back home overnight to arrive back in Belfast on Saturday morning.
While Northern Ireland kept Liverpool midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai quiet – as they did with Paris St-Germain star Khvicha Kvaratskhelia in Tbilisi – the players looked tired as the game progressed.
“Tiredness will be a big factor,” O’Neill said.
“Logistics are a big factor as well in terms of your travel and how that works.”
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Injuries and suspensions
One other factor for smaller nations is injuries and suspensions.
Northern Ireland were already without key players such as Conor Bradley and Ali McCann before Sunderland defender Daniel Ballard injured his hamstring in Georgia, ruling him out of the rest of the window.
Unlike Germany boss Jurgen Klopp, who has the luxury of effectively selecting two different squads, O’Neill has to work with a smaller playing pool.
Of course, injuries are part of the game and can happen at any moment, but the condensed window only magnifies the issue.
“It’s a massive factor in the game and if you look at some players who have been injured in the first game, like Dan, they are now out completely,” O’Neill said.
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“Other countries have had that as well, but you can miss four games of a six-game tournament.”
Another factor to consider is an increase in yellow cards, with tired legs leading to a higher chance of picking up a second booking, which would lead to a suspension.
After two matches, seven Northern Ireland players are one card away from missing a match, and O’Neill admitted he found some of the yellows handed out to his side as “disappointing”.
While this is the first iteration of the autumnal quadruple header, O’Neill says he would like to see consistency across the scheduling of matches.
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Georgia, for example, have had their first two matches at home so have had limited travel and, by consequence, easier recovery from matches before they head to Hungary and Belfast for their final two games of the window.
“There are things in there that create a bit of an imbalance and I know it’s difficult to get the fixtures all right,” O’Neill said.
“The only thing I would like to see is we have an extra day’s recovery now going into the third game.
“I would like to see the recovery periods between every game be consistent.”
The consolation for Northern Ireland is that Ukraine will be making that same journey back from Tbilisi ahead of the third game, but the caveat is they have an additional day to recover and have an hour less to travel with the time difference.
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O’Neill added that he understands the logic behind the scheduling, but it has “high demands on players in that time”.
“It might be difficult to do that [have consistent gaps between games] but I think that would help a lot of the teams, particularly the smaller nations,” he said.
“Sixteen days is a long time and there’s the travel as well, obviously.
“We’re coping well with it, but I think it will be a tough game for us on Friday night.”
Staff and balance
A significant part of Michael O’Neill’s staff work for clubs as well as with Northern Ireland [Getty Images]
While Europe’s bigger nations have their own in-house resources, countries like Northern Ireland share staff with clubs, which can bring its own challenges in an extended window.
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“We don’t carry full-time doctors, full-time physios and full-time sports scientists,” O’Neill added.
“Other countries are the same, but all our staff work at clubs and we need agreement from the clubs.
“That’s a challenge to be able to staff it properly and keep the level of professionalism.
“The big countries don’t have that, they have full-time staff and an army of staff to be able to do these things.”
O’Neill also has to consider how much to rotate this squad. It’s a fine balance between keeping key players fresh, but also how much exposure to give his young squad.
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Of the 26-man squad, 17 of the players are aged 25 or under and only three – Josh Magennis (36), Paddy McNair (31) and Dion Charles (30) – are over the age of 30.
Arsenal’s Ceadach O’Neill, Everton’s Braiden Graham and Kieran Morrison, who is on loan at Sheffield Wednesday from Liverpool, are the three teenagers in the squad.
“I don’t want to put too many young players on the pitch in a game like that where they’re untried and untested at that level,” O’Neill said.
“We want to bring the younger players in to give them the best chance to be able to do well and to build their confidence and to build their reputation. That’s the challenge for us.”
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