Northern Ireland embarked on a Euro 2000 qualifying campaign that featured the nation in a section consisting of Germany, Finland, Turkey and Moldova.
They suffered a 3-0 hammering in a match played at Istanbul in September 1998 which was followed up by a decent 1-0 win at home against Finland and an embarrassing 2-2 home draw against Moldova. After suffering a 3-0 humiliation against Germany in Belfast in March 1999 they could only manage a draw away in Kishinev against Moldova. The Irish ended the qualification campaign in disastrous fashion, suffering three heavy consecutive defeats at home against Turkey followed by two away defeats against Germany and Finland.
Northern Ireland was in a group consisting of Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Iceland and Malta for the 2002 world cup finals. They started off their campaign with an expected home win against Malta before suffering five defeats in their next six matches, including, defeats against Bulgaria, Iceland and Czech Republic. Although they finished their campaign off in winning fashion, a convincing 3-0 home win against Iceland and reasonable 1-0 away victory against Malta in Valletta in an encounter played in October 2001, they finished the group off in fourth position, a slight improvement on their previous qualification campaign. .