Giant slayer Sanchez aims high

Four days is a long time in football - particularly if you are the manager of Northern Ireland. This time last month Lawrie Sanchez experienced just about everything the game has to offer an international coach: dejection and bitter disappointment after a 3-0 loss to Iceland, then exhilaration and joy after seeing his side come from behind twice to pull off a stunning 3-2 win against Spain.

Thrilling memories
The wholly unexpected defeat of Spain revived thrilling memories. Sanchez had already achieved cult status among Nothern Irish supporters by leading his team to victory against England in a FIFA World Cup qualifier almost a year to the day before the Spain match. This result cemented his popularity, but seemingly not his hold on the job. Fierce press criticism after the Iceland game had left Sanchez reportedly considering his future. He refused to speak to the media as his players celebrated beating Spain and fans feared the worst.

'Draining'
By the weekend they were able to breathe a sigh of relief as Sanchez announced he would see out the rest of Northern Ireland's UEFA EURO 2008™ campaign. It was all in a week's work. "In a ten-day get-together for a double header, you probably live a month in ten days - a month as a club manager in ten days as an international manager," Sanchez told uefa.com. "It drains you. When that whistle blows in the 90th minute on the Wednesday night every ounce of energy is gone."

Italy test
It all began again for Sanchez on Wednesday when he met the press for the first time since the Spain success. Having overcome that hurdle, Denmark and Latvia were next on the agenda. So, could we expect a pair of wins? After all, Northern Ireland had proved themselves better than both Spain and England. "For 90 minutes," said Sanchez, whose side's impressive results show they enjoy pitting themselves against the best. "Italy are supposed to come to Belfast sometime, we have a longstanding agreement, so I said, 'Yeah, let's bring the world champions over and see what we can do against them'."

Surprises
When Sanchez took the job in January 2004, Northern Ireland were outside the top 100 in FIFA's rankings and had not scored in ten outings. That run was swiftly broken in a friendly against Norway and in the next match Estonia were defeated, ending a wait of 16 games for a victory. Now Northern Ireland, World Cup qualifiers in 1982 and 1986, rank 58th. Sanchez is used to pulling off upsets. He scored the goal that won unfancied Wimbledon FC promotion to the English top flight in 1986, and also famously hit the winner against Liverpool FC in the 1988 FA Cup final. As a manager he then took lowly Wycombe Wanderers FC to an FA Cup semi-final.

'Belief'
He insists, though, that there is no secret to success against the big boys. "They are probably the easy games to prepare teams for because it is a case of trying to get the belief going - but as for actually motivating the players, that game is in their diaries from the minute it is on the calendar. We beat Spain but we lost to Iceland. And they are the sort of points a small nation like ours have to get if we're going to continue to improve." Matches against Denmark and Latvia, the latter at a sold-out Windsor Park on Wednesday, will be the test of that.

This is an abridged version of an article that appears in this week's edition of the uefa.com Magazine. To read the feature in full, click here.