Optimism. Hope. Fear.

These three words perfectly sum up the mood of the Northern Ireland fans ahead of their top of the group clash against 2014 World Champions, Germany, at Windsor Park on Monday 9th September 2019 with a 7.45pm UK time Kick off.

Northern Ireland go into this match unbeaten in their previous five matches. They beat Luxembourg in a friendly on Thursday night as well as beating Belarus and Estonia both home and away in their opening four matches of their qualifying campaign.

The match against Luxembourg was a glimpse at the future, rather than the present and fans can look forward to Monday night’s game, knowing that the team will be much changed, much more experienced and more refreshed than the German’s.

Germany were beat 4-2 by the Netherlands on Friday night in a game in which Northern Ireland would have preferred the German’s to come out on top, despite them replacing the Green and White army at the top of the table on goal difference.

I got my starting XI very wrong for the last game, not anticipating Micheal O’Neill selecting players that were not even listed in the squad never mind the match programme. I am however feeling more confident with my team selection for this match. Jordan Jones is 100% going to miss this match due to injury and I expect him to be replaced by Niall McGinn, bringing in much needed experience into the side, with Gavin Whyte switching to the left hand side.

This was my original starting XI prediction for the Germany Match

The rest of the team seems to be safe enough with the only real question mark being over the right back position. I believe the Dallas will play, but it might not be at right-back. With Smith out injured and a poor performance from Conor McLaughlin on Thursday night, I think Dallas will get the nod to play there. Micheal could also play him on the left wing replacing Jones in my original team, but now McGinn who I expect to play instead of Jones.

Micheal O’Neill has already hinted that Washington will get the nod upfront due to the lack of game time for the other forwards as well as resting him against Luxembourg due to a slight injury.

I don’t want to sound overly optimistic in this preview, but I genuinely believe that this Northern Ireland side can take a point of Germany. Northern Ireland can leave the stadium on Monday night still top of the group, three points ahead of the Germans. They do have a quality team but its young and inexperienced, this is probably the strongest Northern Ireland side in a long time, and the Germans have a weaker team than they did against Northern Ireland last time, and with the defensive vulnerabilities shown on Friday night, Northern Ireland will be up for a shock result.

My updated starting XI vs Germany

Score Prediction: Northern Ireland 1-1 Germany