Northern Irish progress would top Manchester United glory, says Jonny Evans

Published on Monday 28 March 2011 18:21

Jonny Evans says that qualifying for the European Championship finals with Northern Ireland would rank as a bigger achievement than winning the Champions League with Manchester United.

Evans regularly experiences differing expectations ahead of matches for club and country, with United regular favourites to claim silverware at home and abroad and Northern Ireland perennial underdogs.

Nigel Worthington's squad suffered their first defeat in four Euro 2012 qualifiers in Serbia on Friday night and must get back on track with victory over Slovenia at Windsor Park tonight to keep their Group C hopes alive. Evans, for one, is highly motivated to do just that.

With United closing in on the Premier League title and still contesting the Champions League and FA Cup, the 22-year-old claims they would have to take all three trophies to top taking Northern Ireland back onto the world stage.

"I think qualifying for a major tournament with Northern Ireland would sort of eclipse anything I could achieve with Manchester United, unless it was something like the treble, really cleaning up," said Evans.

"Definitely, it's a harder task to qualify. I think it's harder to win the Premier League or the Champions League than it is to qualify for a major tournament with, say England. But I do believe it's harder for us to qualify for a big tournament than it would be for Manchester United to win the Champions League or the Premier League."

Evans and his team-mates know plenty about Slovenia, having been matched with them in the 2010 World Cup qualifiers as well as the current European campaign.

A rivalry has built up between the sides after the Slovenians celebrated winning the first of the clashes between the teams in 2008 in a fashion that did not go down well with Northern Ireland. Since then Northern Ireland have won both of the matches between the sides, with Evans' brother Corry scoring the only goal in Maribor to decide the last encounter.

Now Evans is hoping he can help rub salt into the Slovenian wounds once again.

"When they won the first game at home they were banging on our changing room doors," he said. "It upset a few of the lads. So when we played them next we got our own back and a few things were said on the pitch. I think we've got the upper hand on them now and they won't be looking forward to playing at Windsor Park again."