Germany beats Northern Ireland 1-0, tops Euro 2016 group

Germany’s Mario Gomez celebrates after scoring their first goal against Norther Ireland during Euro 2016 at Parc des Princes in Paris, on Tuesday, June 21, 2016.

Content with seven points from a possible nine on offer in Group C; so far, Germany happily took their foot off the gas but continued to dominate possession inside the Parc des Princes with 15 minutes remaining.

Northern Ireland finished third in their group on three points, but with a better goal difference than Turkey and Albania, who finished third in their respective groups.

UEFA are using a complicated algorithm to match the teams in the knock-out stages, created to ensure that no teams from the same group meet in the last sixteen. We earned a right to be in the round of 16.

“We have to hope we produce an upset in a cup-tie format”.

“We’re a very small nation with a very small group of players”.

“I’m immensely proud to be here”.

The manager promised a resilient performance and said his players wouldn’t collapse against Germany the way Brazil did when they lost 7-1 at the 2014 World Cup.

The first German chance had come three minutes earlier, when Thomas Muller charged into the box, struck the ball off the bounce, and delivered it straight into McGovern’s delicates.

It was more of the same in the second half as Muller’s diagonal cross put Gotze in alone but McGovern again came to Northern Ireland’s rescue, and a minute later Gotze redirected a low Ozil cross just wide of the post. The players gave him a round of applause when he came into the dressing room.

Had they scored four they would have gone through immediately but, while they must now wait on other results, Northern Ireland can prepare for the knockout stages.

Germany should have doubled their lead in the opening seconds of the second half, but Gotze fired his close-range shot at stopper Michael McGovern, who spread himself to deny the Bayern Munich star.

McGovern is now out of contract – not for long – but he played his club football last season for the wonderfully named Hamilton Academical, marginal even by the forgiving measures of the Scottish Premiership; his home ground has a capacity of 6,000.

NORTHERN IRELAND (4-1-4-1): McGovern; Hughes, McAuley, Cathcart, J Evans; Davis; Ward, C Evans (McGinn 84), Norwood, Dallas (Magennis 70); Washington (Lafferty 60).

McGovern was clapped back into the Northern Ireland dressing room after outshining numerous players who had led Germany to World Cup glory two years earlier.

Germany team has a disappointed performance in recent times and has been poor.

However, the Irish can look forward to a place in the last 16 along with Slovakia.

They will be guaranteed to reach the knockout stages if the Czech Republic do not beat Turkey later on Tuesday evening while if results fall their way on Wednesday – such as the failure of neighbours Republic of Ireland to defeat Italy – they will also qualify.

They opened their campaign with a scratchy 2-0 win against Ukraine and then drew 0-0 versus Poland, leaving them needing at least a point to be sure of a place in the last-16.