Sanchez eager to build on England win

Northern Ireland boss Lawrie Sanchez is determined to use his side’s shock World Cup defeat of England to mount a serious challenge for qualification for the 2008 European Championships.

Victory over Sven-Goran Eriksson’s side in Belfast on Wednesday night has given the Irish a realistic chance of finishing third in Group 6, and Sanchez hopes the confidence they have gained will help to lay the foundation for a new push.

“The benefits are that we can now finish third in the group because we can catch Austria,” he told BBC Radio 5 Live’s Sportsweek show. “We play them in the last game. England, I think, will beat them in the next round of games, and we can finish third.

“If we finish third in the group, that will be a magnificent achievement from the team and will put us in a good position going into the Europeans.

“Hopefully we will have one or two teams in our group that we are capable of beating, and if we beat them and can have one or two upsets against the bigger teams, we will get closer to qualifying for a major championship again.”

Northern Ireland’s heroics may have sparked an inquest in England, but they have been greeted deliriously in their homeland.

Sanchez, who famously scored the only goal for Wimbledon in the 1998 FA Cup Final as the Crazy Gang upset overwhelming favourites Liverpool, admits the experience was similar, although he is not sure which ranks higher in his career.

“It is hard to say,” he said. “As a player, that was the highlight of my playing career; as a manager, this is the highlight of my management career.

“To say which is better – they are both equally up there. I think they will both go down in folklore one way or another.

“I keep saying it, but it was the players’ moment. As a manager, you bask in reflected glory and reflected pride about how pleased you are with your players having shown them how too achieve immortality in Northern Ireland football.

“It was 78 years since a Northern Ireland team had won in Belfast against England and it will probably be the same time again before the Northern Ireland team wins again (against England) in Belfast, but I showed them and my staff showed them what was possible.”