""I think no matter who we're going to play first game, it's important to get a good start. "Going away from home in the first two games, I don't necessarily think it's a bad thing. "If we can go to Luxembourg and get a win, then we've still got three more home games to go, so I think it's exciting.""
""The main thing we can learn is we had chances to kind of kill the game off, obviously we didn't do that. "And, also on the flip side, just to be able to stay solid at the back, which normally we are, apart from the odd occasion. "It was a bit disappointing to not win that game, so that's something we learned that day, to see our games. "I know it's going to be a tough game, so we will just go there and try and win the game and that can give us the confidence to go into the next game.""
Northern Ireland begin World Cup qualifying with away fixtures in Luxembourg and Germany, then host remaining Group A matches including Slovakia. The squad is youthful but confident under Michael O'Neill. Midfielder Shea Charles emphasizes the importance of a strong start and believes an away win in Luxembourg would boost morale before facing Germany. The team learned from a previous draw with Luxembourg in November when they failed to close out a two-goal lead, identifying chances to kill games and the need to remain defensively solid as lessons. The focus is on winning and building confidence for the next fixtures.
Read at www.bbc.com
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