Michael O'Neill praised Northern Ireland's youngsters after an experimental side emerged with a 1-0 friendly win over Luxembourg on Thursday night.

A horror own goal from Kevin Malget handed the Green and White Army victory at Windsor Park ahead of their Euro 2020 qualifier against Germany on Monday night.

O'Neill's team selection was made with that game in mind as he kept his key players out of the firing line and handed opportunities to others.

And though the game was largely lacking in quality, the most encouraging signs came from the younger players in a side featuring only three players to have started Northern Ireland's last outing in Belarus in June.

The 21-year-old Ciaron Brown – uncapped at any level and only called into the under-21 squad for the first time last week – started at centre-half alongside Tom Flanagan, who was earning only his second cap at the age of 27.

Shayne Lavery and Liam Donnelly both came off the bench to earn their second caps, while there were debuts for teenagers Alfie McCalmont and Ethan Galbraith in the second half.

In truth, the game is unlikely to live long in the memory of many besides those making their debuts, with little in the way of goalmouth action and only Malget's horrible mistake separating the sides.

But given O'Neill's only goal was to emerge with his side's confidence in tact and his key players fit and ready to go on Monday, he could not ask for too much more.

"It would be nice to score another goal or one of the young guys to score a goal, but we won the game and we have a nice little run now with five wins out of five," he said.

"We're in as good a place as we could be going into the game on Monday. The only thing that could be better for us is if Michael Smith or Jordan Jones or Liam Boyce were fit, but you can't have everything."