Tuesday 21 June 2016

WARD WAITING ON NORTHERN IRELAND'S EURO OUTCOME

Former Torquay United striker Jamie Ward will be waiting to see whether Northern Ireland have done enough to book a place in the last 16 of Euro 2016 as one of the tournament's best third placed sides.

Ward, 30, who currently plays in the Championship for Nottingham Forest, has appeared for Michael O'Neill's side in all three of their group games in the competition. He came on as a substitute in their opening Group C encounter with Poland and started their next two matches against Ukraine and Germany.

He is the first former Gulls player to appear at the major tournament since Paul Hall appeared for Jamaica in the 1998 World Cup and the first to feature in a European Championship since Keith Curle featured in England's opening match of Euro 92 in Sweden.

Northern Ireland could be set to face Group B winners Wales in the last 16 if they emerge as the best performing third placed team from Groups A, C and D, which will be decided after tonight's final Group D fixtures that see Spain face Croatia and Czech Republic take on Turkey.

At the time of writing, the Irish have the same number of points as Albania (three) who finished third in Group A, but they possess a superior goal difference of zero to the Albanian's minus two. ,

Therefore the Czechs would need to beat Turkey to claim their place in the last 16 at the expense of Northern Ireland, as a win will see them finish the group stage with four points.