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Northern Ireland hero Lafferty hails team showing in Finland triumph

Kyle Lafferty was over the moon after netting a match-winning brace for Northern Ireland over Finland on Sunday.

The 27-year old striker, who is on loan with Turkish side Caykur Rizespor from Norwich City, opened the scoring in the 33rd minute with a fine volley before adding a second from a header minutes later.

That gave Michael O'Neill's side a two-goal lead in their Group F Euro2016 qualifier at Windsor Park in Belfast before Finland pulled one back in injury-time through Berat Sadik.

Nonetheless, the Northern Irish saluted 2-1 to remain second on the group table behind Romania thanks to a great team showing which was noted by Man of the Match Lafferty.

"Obviously it's all going right for me at the minute and I'm enjoying it," Lafferty told Sky Sports.

"The first goal, I decided to hit it first time and luckily it went in.

"But it's down to the team, everyone was excellent today. Although I'm getting the goals and the rewards you have to look at the team performance."

He added: "It was obviously nervous (at the end) but we deserved to win the game.

"It was excellent today, the attitude, the heart and the team performance."

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Andrew Slevison
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