Northern Ireland vs Greece match report: Michael O’Neill's men reach Euro 2016 finals on historic night in Belfast

They’ve done it, and they’ve done it with style. Surrounded by a noise that suggested there were five times as many as the 12,000 inside Windsor Park, Northern Ireland swept clear their path to France next summer with a magnificent victory over the Euro 2004 champions.

This polished, determined, overachieving squad – embodied in their captain, Steven Davis – and assembled with intelligence and purpose by manager Michael O’Neill, have led Northern Ireland to their first-ever European Championship finals. It is the first major finals Northern Ireland will have experienced since 1986 in Mexico – and how they deserve it.

The superb Davis, who had scored five goals in his previous 76 caps, got two here. The first was a peach, a team goal.

In between, Josh Magennis, the Kilmarnock striker who started out as a Cardiff City goalkeeper, nodded in his first goal for his country. Greece got a late consolation from Christos Aravidis. It was met with silence.

Magennis’s story is tremendous and when he was replaced in the 78th minute the ovation was raucous.

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This was a weakened Irish team but you could not tell. That is what O’Neill does. He has made players play well above themselves. Northern Ireland came out of Pot Five when the draw was made, let’s not forget.

But they have put together a series of performances and results that will mean they should not be underestimated when they get to France.

Playing centre-forward for Greece was Kostas Mitroglou, the man signed by Rene Meulensteen at Fulham for a reported £11m 18 months ago. Mitroglou, who is still a Fulham employee, is now on loan at Benfica.

He played in their Champions League win at Atletico Madrid last week. “Mitrogoal” was one of three in the Greece starting XI who have played Champions League football this season. That Greek experience and talent has made their implosion in Group F as spectacular as Northern Ireland’s rise.

Paddy McNair’s presence at full-back – third choice there for O’Neill – was another indication of the manager’s pool. With Conor McLouglin suspended and Aaron Hughes injured, O’Neill had to switch McNair from the berth in midfield where he had planned to start him.

There was no Jonny Evans in defence but his younger brother, Corry, of Blackburn Rovers, was stationed in midfield. And, as they did against Hungary here a month ago, O’Neill’s men began at a furious pace.

The Greeks, in white, were hounded, there were three home corners in the first five minutes and from the third, Oliver Norwood hit the side-netting. From a Norwood free-kick on 18 minutes, Jamie Ward placed a header wide. It was a solid start from the Irish – made all the better by the news reverberating around Windsor Park that the Faroe Islands had gone one up in Hungary.

It was to get louder, though only after a couple of hairy moments at the home end. Panagiotis Kone, Greece’s playmaker, was responsible for these, a pinged corner in the 15th minute leading to a panicky half-clearance by the Irish defence. Another Kone corner, on 33 minutes, was met by the forehead of Vangelis Moras and led to Michael McGovern’s one intervention of the first half.

The Hamilton Academical goalkeeper, whose fumble had gifted Hungary their goal last month, came through a bunch of players to punch clear. It was a big moment for McGovern.

It soon became bigger. Some of the football this Northern Ireland team play is overshadowed by the talk of spirit and no one personifies this more than Davis.

Two minutes after that McGovern punch, Davis took possession 30 yards out. He looked up, did not rush, and found Evans with a square-ish pass. Off the ball, the Irish had runners. Surveying his options, Evans selected an exquisite diagonal pass that found Stuart Dallas roaming behind the Greece left-back.

Dallas, like Davis and Evans, kept calm. He slid a pass across the six-yard box to where the unrelenting Davis had sprinted forward and he stuck it away from close range. The ground erupted.

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It was not undeserved – Magennis had a goal-bound volley blocked on 24 minutes – yet on the stroke of half-time there was a warning from Greece. After a shot from Nikos Karelis had been charged down bravely by Chris Brunt, Mitroglou swept the rebound against McGovern’s left-hand post.

Northern Ireland could not ignore that, but they also had to retain belief. They were ahead. Presumably O’Neill’s team talk during the interval focused on that, while stressing that a second goal would do no harm. To get it four minutes into the second half, that was beyond expectation. But that’s what happened.

The Irish attacked again from the restart and won another corner. Norwood, who was so influential, took it and Magennis met it at the near post.

The ball seemed to loop up in the air but when it did come down, it was in the back of the Greece net and Magennis was charging 50 yards down the touchline to embrace his manager.

Ten minutes later, Northern Ireland’s happy fate was sealed. Again it was Davis, this time reacting to a cleared corner from Brunt with a 12-yard header that soared into the far corner. France, here they come.

Clinching a place at France 2016 is the best achievement by Northern Ireland since reaching the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, where they won just one point and failed to reach the knockout stages.

However, four years earlier, Billy Bingham’s side made the second group round by memorably knocking out the hosts Spain in Valencia, Gerry Armstrong scoring their goal in a 1-0 win.

Their best performance was in the 1958 World Cup in Sweden when a side led by Danny Blanchflower reached the quarter-finals before losing 4-0 to France.