Northern Ireland will look to salvage its World Cup hopes when it takes on Luxembourg in the qualifiers on Tuesday.
The Northern Irish were minutes away from securing a vital three points against group leader Portugal on Friday, but the superiority of Cristiano Ronaldo ultimately did them in. Ronaldo scored three goals in less than 20 minutes to transform a 2-1 Ireland lead into a 4-2 Portuguese stranglehold. Northern Ireland has just one win in this tournament; a shocking 1-0 victory over Russia in August.
The team remains at just six points in seven matches and can no longer afford to lose points in its remaining three qualifiers. A single point loss will spell doom for Ireland's World Cup hopes.
Fortunately, the team is taking on a lowly Luxembourg side that has already been eliminated from contention with just three points in seven games. Luxembourg has not won a single game in the qualifiers, but has accumulated three draws and four losses with four goals scored and 17 conceded. One of those three draws came against Northern Ireland in Belfast on Sept. 11, 2012. Northern Ireland had lost 2-0 against Russia in its opener and Luxembourg had been defeated 2-1 by Portugal. Northern Ireland's Dean Shiels opened the scoring in the 14th minute and the team held on until the 86th minute when Daniel da Mota scored to tie the game at 1-1.
Prediction: The two sides battle to a 0-0 draw.
Start Time: 2:15 p.m. EST
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