Northern Ireland on the verge of a 'magnificent achievement' - O'Neill

Northern Ireland are on the brink of making history after their 3-1 victory over the Faroe Islands, and manager Michael O'Neill believes every player in his squad deserves to be at the Euro 2016 finals in France next year.

A brace from Gareth McAuley and Kyle Lafferty's goal – the latter's sixth in qualification – secured a hard-earned triumph on Friday, which leaves O'Neill's side within one win of qualification for their maiden European Championships.

And O'Neill was quick to praise his players, confident that they will not let the opportunity slip when they host Hungary on Monday.

"We simply have to get over the line now and we want to do it on Monday night," he said.

"We seem to have come through unscathed and it would be fantastic if we could do it in front of our own fans at Windsor Park.

"This group of players has really developed over the past couple of years and it would be a magnificent achievement.

"There are some great players who deserve to get to a finals - Aaron Hughes has 97 caps, he wasn't in the side tonight but still came from Australia to be part of this squad."