Northern Ireland´s Magennis plans to ´book a first-class ticket to the moon´

Josh Magennis says he will “book a first-class ticket to the moon” if Northern Ireland beat Germany at Euro 2016.

The tournament debutants responded to an opening 1-0 loss to Poland by beating Ukraine 2-0 in Lyon on Thursday, giving them every chance of reaching the round of 16.

Magennis helped to seal his team’s place at the competition in France by scoring his first senior international goal in what was his first competitive start for the national side, but the 25-year-old Kilmarnock striker now has a new personal highlight.

“For me, the Greece game was the pinnacle of my international career, then,” he said.

“Because of my first start, my first goal and getting to the European Championship but to get to what we call Graceland [Euro 2016] and win in the style that we won is fantastic,” he added, referring to the victory over Ukraine.

“I’ve never felt the experience I got in the changing room after the game of such a brotherhood of team-mates. If we win in Paris anything could happen. [We’ll] book a first-class ticket to the moon or something.”

Ukraine’s Ruslan Rotan was deemed to have made some unflattering remarks about Northern Ireland’s direct, physical approach before the game.

And Magennis confirmed the jibes served to rile up his team-mates, who expect to be taken more seriously after their win at Stade de Lyon.

“Other teams know now we are a formidable force,” he said.

“They can’t write us off as just being Northern Ireland or underestimate and disrespect us because if they do, the type of performance that we produced tonight will damage most teams.”

It remains to be seen if Magennis is proven right when Michael O’Neill’s team tackle the world champions in Paris on Tuesday.