With Healy not doing the business for Leeds you wonder if he can keep doing it for Northern Ireland. With opposition the class of Sweden, Spain and Denmark, you wonder how long a team that loses to Iceland can continue to grind out results. You keep thinking that the bubble has to burst some time. Then something like this happens.
Northern Ireland | 2 | Sweden | 1 |
Healy | (31, 58) | Elmander | (26) |
| | | |
Of course those games in hand, being played while Northern Ireland take a break from qualifiers in June, will change things a bit but just look at this.
| | P | W | D | L | GD | Pts |
1. | Northern Ireland | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | +3 | 13 |
2. | Sweden | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | +5 | 12 |
3. | Spain | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | +3 | 9 |
4. | Denmark | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | +5 | 7 |
5. | Latvia | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | +1 | 3 |
6. | Liechtenstein | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 | -12 | 3 |
7. | Iceland | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 | -5 | 3 |