"As Northern Ireland take the field against Slovakia on Friday evening, for many of Michael O'Neill's young squad it will feel like the most consequential international of their careers to date. With their efforts to reach the World Cup in North America next summer reaching a critical juncture, there is a sense that the 90 minutes in Kosice could be defining in Group A where Northern Ireland are three points behind both Germany and Slovakia with two games remaining."
"However, needing at least a point to carry their hopes of a top-two finish into their final group game at home to Luxembourg on Monday, there is the curious scenario where Northern Ireland's players could leave the field beaten, only to discover that events elsewhere have ensured them a qualifying play-off spot regardless. As a winner of their Nations League group, only a highly unlikely set of results would mean Northern Ireland would miss out on the play-off games in March."
""We haven't paid any attention to that," he said. "We did our job in the Nations League and, if that gives us a route to a qualification play-off, great. If it doesn't, we have to take care of it here. "This is the here and now, we have to deal with that situation which is obviously getting as many points as we can from the final two games. "What we can get is 12 points and we have to aspire to that.""
Northern Ireland travel to Kosice to face Slovakia needing at least a point to keep realistic hopes of finishing top two in Group A. The squad sit three points behind Germany and Slovakia with two games remaining and must focus on gaining as many points as possible. Nations League group victory offers a play-off safety net that would make missing automatic qualification unlikely, but the team cannot rely on that route. Manager Michael O'Neill emphasises concentrating on the immediate fixtures and aiming to maximise the available 12 points from the final two games.
Read at www.bbc.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]