Estonia seek to stay in hunt in Belfast
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Article summary
Estonia go in search of back-to-back victories over Northern Ireland knowing that they will move into a play-off place should they win in Belfast and Serbia fail to beat Italy.
Article top media content
Article body
Northern Ireland will look to atone for the defeat that ended their hopes of a UEFA EURO 2012 place but Estonia will have other ideas as they push for a Group C play-off spot in what is their final qualifying fixture in Belfast.
• Estonia beat Nigel Worthington's side 4-1 in Tallinn on 6 September. Northern Ireland were undone by first-half goals from Martin Vunk and Tarmo Kink and although captain Raio Piiroja put through his own net just before the break, substitutes Sergei Zenjov and Kaimar Saag put the result beyond doubt.
• Tarmo Rüütli's Estonia are a point behind second-placed Serbia in Group C but in order to take the play-off place, they must beat Northern Ireland and hope that Serbia fail to pick up a point in their remaining games – against Italy and Slovenia.
• Prior to this campaign, the nations had only met in friendly matches, the first in Tallinn on 31 March 2004 and the second in Belfast on 1 March 2006. Both ended in 1-0 wins for Northern Ireland, with David Healy scoring in the first, and Ivan Sproule hitting his maiden international goal in the second.
