Northern Ireland fall to USA in international friendly

Northern Ireland have been defeated by USA in an international friendly at Windsor Park.

Giovanni Reyna and Christian Pulisic scored either side of the break to stretch Northern Ireland manager Ian Baraclough’s wait for a win in 90 minutes to 10 games.

Niall McGinn pulled a goal back late on after a positive performance ahead of Wednesday’s crucial World Cup qualifier against Bulgaria.

Baraclough made 10 changes to the team that were defeated by Italy on Thursday and Steven Davis was made to wait for his record-breaking 126th cap.

Kyle Lafferty could have put Northern Ireland ahead when he was put through by George Saville but the Kilmarnock striker shot wide.

Reyna opened the scoring on the half-hour mark from long range. His low shot took a huge deflection off Ciaron Brown to float over Conor Hazard into the net.

Shayne Lavery led the Northern Irish response and forced Zack Steffen into a good save.

Pulisic doubled the lead from the penalty spot when he went down under the challenge of Dan Ballard. Replays showed that the Blackpool defender won the ball but the Chelsea midfielder dusted himself off to beat Hazard from 12 yards.

McGinn scored the best goal of the match two minutes from time when he lofted a half volley in off the crossbar from the right edge of the penalty area.