Talking points as Northern Ireland look to cause an upset in Germany

Northern Ireland continue their World Cup qualifying campaign on Sunday away to Germany.

After starting with a 3-1 win in Luxembourg on Thursday night, Michael O’Neill’s men move on to the toughest fixture in Group A.

Here the PA news agency looks at the key talking points.

Pressure off

O’Neill refused to call Sunday a free hit, but the pressure is certainly off to some degree. The manager said after Thursday’s win that he had told his players at the start of the week that a three-point return would represent a “good trip”, and that anything more would make a “great trip”. With a win on the board, Northern Ireland have already achieved their primary target for the week. Few will back them to take anything out of Sunday’s match – they have not beaten the Germans since a 1-0 win over the former West Germany in 1983 under Billy Bingham – but they go into it with little to lose.

Wounded Germans

Germany come into the game on the back of their first ever World Cup qualifying defeat away from home, suffering a 2-0 upset loss to Slovakia in Bratislava in a result which does nothing to help Northern Ireland’s hopes of a top-two finish. It was a third straight defeat for Julian Nagelsmann’s side after losses to Portugal and France in the Nations League finals in June, and the pressure is on the Germany boss to turn things around. Will Northern Ireland face a wounded animal, or a fierce backlash?

Fifty up for Peacock-Farrell

Bailey Peacock-Farrell is set to make his 50th appearance for Northern Ireland, having made his return to the squad in this window after a difficult 12 months. Dislodged by Pierce Charles in October and suffering from a shoulder injury that impacted his club form and saw him miss both the March and June windows, the 28-year-old appeared to have slipped down the pecking order for Northern Ireland but that has only made his achievement feel more special to him. However, there will be no captaincy to mark the occasion, with Trai Hume due to keep the armband.

Friendly fire

This remains a very young, inexperienced Northern Ireland team, with 10 of those in O’Neill’s squad still 21 or under, and only a handful having any Premier League experience. Knowing this campaign would pit his side against one of the top-tier nations in Europe, O’Neill made a point of scheduling tough friendlies away from home over the last 18 months in a bid to get his players ready, taking them to Spain, Sweden and Denmark. Two of those ended in 5-1 defeats while Northern Ireland were much stronger in a 2-1 loss to Denmark in Copenhagen, but this will be the real test in a competitive fixture.

Twenty years since England

For any Northern Ireland fans who believe in omens, Sunday’s match comes 20 years to the day since one of the more famous results in their history – the 1-0 win over England at Windsor Park in 2005. David Healy’s 74th-minute goal sealed the win for Lawrie Sanchez’s men, at the time ranked 116th in the world, to humiliate Sven-Goran Eriksson’s England side. A win on Sunday might eclipse even that.