Evening all, and welcome to Northern Ireland v Slovakia!

Duda was at Norwich last season and struggled - he's now at Koln, and looks a decent player, but he's not really got the pace to play on the shoulder. My guess is they'll look to play into and off him, which men dashing past at speed. Er, I think I've just explained what a false nine is.

Duda, who's playing as a false nine, pulls left and squares smartly, but no one's filling the gap he left.

NI are playing 4-3-3, not 4-4-2 as advised by Uefa's website. McGinn is on the right wing, Magennis down the left, and Washington through the middle.

Boos as Slovakia have possession, and then McNair skates down the right, lumping a cross beyond the back post.

The ground is absolutely jumping, and we're away!

The anthems are done, and it's time to go!

Here come the teams!

Marek Hamsik was the best player on the pitch and by far, when Slovakia played Ireland. He's easily the best player on either side, and his relationship with Duda is key to how his team play.

"Believe in what we can do, believe in each other," Baraclough tells Sky. He plans for his team to test out the opposition in the areas in which they've planned to test them. That means getting the ball wide and putting balls into the box - he's gone with two strikers - and says that if his team play as well as they can, they'll be right in it.

Elsewhere: North Macedonia have qualified, beating Georgia 1-0 in Tblisi. They join a group also including Netherlands, Ukraine and Austria.

There'll be 1060 fans inside Windsor Park tonight, but I bet it'll sound like ten times that. And what a pleasure it'll be to hear them.

It's a funny thing, British football. When I were a nipper, the home nations and Ireland had some absolutely brilliant players - Scotland had Hansen, Miller, McLeish, Strachan, Dalglish, McStay and Gough; Wales had Hughes, Rush, Ratcliffe and Southall; Northern Ireland had Whiteside and Jennings, Ireland had Houghton, Keane and McGrath. So, while their problems are also down to the collapse of Communism, which created a whole raft of new nations, the quality just isn't the same.

And England have a friendly against Ireland, which you can follow here...

Also going on: Scotland are at home to Serbia, also playing for Euro 2020.

Poland, Spain and Sweden are the teams, by the way, and like hell he doesn't know that - but fair play to him for pretending to the contrary.

Baraclough says that in the final minutes before the game, he doesn't say much. It's a build up of messages, and in that crucial time, it's about feeling togetherness, not just with the team or even the squad, but the staff too. He says it's a privilege to be the position they're in, and he can't even recall the group they'll be in if they win because it's not currently relevant.

And that's emphasised by Sky's expert telling us it's about who wants it more. It isn't, it's about who's better on the night.

Slovakia, meanwhile, welcome back Skriniar, who missed the Ireland game with corona. He replaces Vavro, while Satka is in for Valjent, Hubocan for Mazan, Lobotka for Hrosovsky and Mak for Mihalik. This is a much stronger team, basically, and it's hard not to fancy them.

Ian Baraclough makes one change from that win over Bosnia, Conor Washington replacing Corry Evans.