NORTHERN IRELAND will face Cyprus’s rising young star Loizos Loizou on Sunday, the teenager who has thanked Neil Lennon for aiding the latest stage of his development.

Loizou will not turn 19 until next month, but the Omonia Nicosia winger has already picked up 16 caps and is considered to be his nation’s brightest hope in some time.

Since March, Loizou’s manager at club level has been former Northern Ireland international Lennon, who has picked him out as one to watch after he helped them lift the Cypriot Cup in May.

Though Loizou’s prospects have been rising for some time, the player himself credited Lennon with helping him take a big step forward in the last few months.

“Mr Lennon helped me a lot,” he said. “When he came to Omonia, I was not in my best shape. He helped me mentally and also my way of playing.

“After a match when I didn’t play well, in front of all the players in the dressing room, he told me some things that made me wake up and gave me a better future.”

We can only imagine what choice phrases Lennon might have used, but Loizou sounded grateful for the forthright advice as he takes strides on the international stage, a potential shop window for a move to a bigger league.

“The motivation is always very strong when representing your country and it’s very important for all the players,” he said. “We want to play well and if that results in something good for me or my team-mates, that would be very welcome.”

Cyprus will certainly want to play better than they did in the second half of Thursday’s match against Kosovo, when goals after the break from Valon Berisha and Edon Zhegrova condemned them to a 2-0 defeat.

The disappointment was apparent as coach Nikos Kostenoglou came under some pressure in his pre-match press conference over his decision to leave Stelios Andreou and Rafail Mamas, two young players also expected to have bright futures, out of his squad for these Nations League fixtures.

But the 51-year-old defended his decisions – both in terms of selection and tactics.

“I have in mind to make some changes (from Thursday) but even if we are going to change the tactics and the way of playing, it’s important to change the mentality of our team,” he said.

“After good or bad results we must not have criticism based always on results. We have to see the bigger picture.”