O'Neill: Republic clash more than a friendly

North faces South in Ireland on Thursday, as the Micheal O'Neill's side take the short trip to Dublin to face the Republic of Ireland in an international friendly match. 

However, the Northern Ireland boss has insisted that his side will be treating the friendly with the same focus, that they intend to apply to their crucial Nations League clash with Austria three days later. 

In his pre-match press conference for the grudge match, O'Neill said: "I would not categorise one game being more important than the other. For me, this is a double header, and we will play it like a double header. That's the experience the players need to get, playing and then recovering, particularly when you are bringing new players into the squad." 

He continued: "You can't deal with the second game until you've played the first, the turn around time is very little. So to benefit the younger players and those new to international football we will treat both games as if they were qualifiers, albeit we can make six substitutions on Thursday and give game time to a few. That will not be to the detriment of the performance."

 

November 14, 2018

Northern Ireland are on the brink of being relegated to a lower group in the Nations League, and so any and all future matches in the competition carry crucial points.  Regardless, O'Neill feels confident that his side need just a little bit more luck in front of goal, and their fortunes will change. 

The manager said: "I'd be more concerned if we weren't creating chances, to be honest. We hit the post three times in Bosnia and we hit the post in Austria at 1-0 down as well. I'm not a great one for talking about luck or rub of the green, but in this campaign we've created loads of chances."

O'Neill has the added bonus of welcoming striker Kyle Lafferty back to the squad,after the goalscorer missed the recent international fixtures through injury.