The blueprint for Northern Ireland playing away from home has been set according to Michael O’Neill.
In the run-up to Sunday’s Nations League game with Bulgaria in the historic city of Plovdiv, O’Neill has been talking to his team about their performances in March in Romania and Scotland.
In Bucharest, his young team were brilliant earning a 1-1 draw and a touch unlucky not to leave victorious. Then a few days later a richly deserved 1-0 success over Scotland at Hampden Park followed with Conor Bradley netting a cracker.
Those were friendlies. O’Neill now wants the players to deliver on the road in a competitive fixture.
“I think the performances in Scotland and Romania were almost like a blueprint of how you would want your team to play away from home,” said O’Neill during his press conference on the eve of the League C3 contest at the Stadion Hristo Botev.
“We gave away very few chances in the games against two sides that were preparing to go to Euro 2024 and we were always a threat on the counter attack. We could have won the game in Bucharest as well.
“I think that gives you a lot of belief, especially for younger players, that they can play away in difficult atmospheres and big stadiums and compete and take something from the game.
“Those two matches were a big learning curve for the squad. We refer to those two performances a lot and things we did in relation to how we will approach the game against Bulgaria.”
Quite rightly much praise has been heaped on O’Neill’s new era side over the past 10 months due to those results in Romania and Scotland, home triumphs against Denmark and Luxembourg and a win on neutral turf versus Andorra. The only defeat was 5-1 to Spain who went on to romp to European Championship glory.
He admits though that with points at stake away from home, the match with Bulgaria who drew 0-0 against Belarus in their opening Nations League game when Northern Ireland were beating Luxembourg, will be a test of how far the class of 2024 have come.
“We have made a lot of progress in the last 10 months but the real test of that will be nights like the one against Bulgaria in a competitive game where we are away against a difficult opponent,” said O’Neill.
“You want to take something from these games if you are going to progress to be a team that can qualify for a major tournament.
“We would expect with it being Bulgaria’s first home game (of the Nations League) for them to really test us in the early part of the game and they will have the home crowd. We have to be ready to deal with that but equally we want to play on the front foot.”
Asked if he felt his young side have matured over the past year, O’Neill responded: “Yes, I think we have. In the last 10 months there have been a lot of new faces in the squad and in the team.
“The initial phase for any young player is to come into the squad and then they have to wait for their chance to play. They have probably got that quite quickly and that’s credit to them because most of them have taken it.
“This is a really good group to work with. They are very responsive and work very hard.
“We have real running power and athleticism in our team and that’s something we have to bring to the game all the time. It doesn’t mean we play loose and play a little bit without structure but when you have the ability to cover the ground like we do it’s important that we do that at the right moments.”
While O’Neill is keen to see attacking verve from the likes of Bradley, Shea Charles, Isaac Price and Callum Marshall, he also wants defensive solidity which has provided the platform for recent results.
“The biggest difference more than anything, Spain aside, has been we have only conceded one goal in six games,” stated the manager.
“Prior to the Denmark game (in November 2023) we conceded four goals in Helsinki (against Finland) which was a difficult night for us with a very young team.
“We have had to look to other aspects of our game to improve in and that’s what we’ve done.”
O’Neill feels Bulgaria, much like Northern Ireland, are going through a transitional phase. Even so with passionate backing in Plovdiv he expects them to be a dangerous animal and more used to the humid conditions so a challenge awaits the visitors.
No new injuries were reported by the manager with Bolton defender Eoin Toal back in training.
After the comfortable victory against Luxembourg it would be a surprise if there were many changes to the starting line-up and it is unknown who will be captain after Trai Hume wore the armband on Thursday. Paddy McNair conducted the press conference but there was no confirmation from O’Neill that the Ballyclare man would lead the team out.
What we know for sure is the Northern Ireland boss wants another positive result and preferably a win.