Northern Ireland suffer narrow friendly defeat in Ukraine

Ian Baraclough’s Northern Ireland side fell to a 1-0 defeat in Ukraine. Picture: Nedim Grabovica

Second-half chances went unrewarded as Northern Ireland fell to a 1-0 friendly defeat against Ukraine on Thursday night.

After Oleksandr Zubkov highlighted a strong Ukrainian start with a 10th-minute goal it looked as though the hosts might cruise to a big win, but they spent much of the second half on the back foot as Northern Ireland gave Andriy Shevchenko plenty to think about going into Euro 2020.