Northern Ireland 3 Spain 2: Healy plays the hero again with hat-trick to stun Spain
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.A year on from scoring the goal that beat England, David Healy was again Northern Ireland's hero last night as they recorded arguably an even more surprising win. The striker scored a hat-trick, the first by a Northern Ireland player for 15 years, to help his team to come from behind to record a famous victory.
Spain twice took the lead, with goals from Xavi Hernandez and David Villa, but each time Healy restored parity before he struck the winner in the 80th minute, collecting a long goal-kick and lobbing the Spain goalkeeper Iker Casillas.
After defeat by Iceland on Saturday, it was a superb response from Lawrie Sanchez's side, and captain Aaron Hughes said: "We answered a few things that were asked of us and hopefully shut a few people up."
Xavi scored the first goal in the 13th minute with a volley off a cross from Antonio Lopez, just after the Northern Ireland goalkeeper Maik Taylor had come on for the injured Roy Carroll.
Healy put Northern Ireland level six minutes later, flicking the ball past Casillas with his right foot. Villa's shot made it 2-1 to the visitors in the 51st minute, but Healy scored his second in the 64th, cracking Steve Clingan's free-kick into the near corner from 15 yards.
Northern Ireland (4-4-2): Carroll (Taylor, 12); Duff, Craigan, Hughes, Evans; Baird, Gillespie, Clingan, Davis; Healy (Feeney, 85), Lafferty (Quinn, 54).
Spain (4-4-2): Casillas; Ramos (Salgado, 46), Puyol, Ibanez, Lopez, Albelda (Fabregas, 29), Xavi, Alonso; Villa, Torres (Luis Garcia, 64), Raul.
Referee: F De Bleeckere (Belgium).
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments