Bosnia stayed on top after the restart with fog slowly enveloping the ground but Clark again came to the rescue when he slid in to prevent Dzeko connecting with Visca’s cross.
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A Football Association of Ireland statement said: “Shane Long will not be involved in Friday’s first leg as he will remain at Southampton for further treatment on his ankle injury, but he has not been ruled out of next Monday’s second leg at the Aviva Stadium”.
“I don’t think the advantage is with us”, said O’Neill.
“But we certainly want to finish this campaign off now with qualification for France, because we started the campaign off having that goal in our minds and it would certainly be disappointing if we didn’t do it”.
Bosnia’s width is problematic at times, and Coleman charging up the right flank behind Ireland’s winger on that side could prove to be too much for them to handle.
Central defender Richard Keogh could be one of the beneficiaries of O’Shea’s enforced absence, and whoever lines up at the back faces the daunting prospect of keeping Bosnia skipper Edin Dzeko at bay.
Robbie Brady whipped in a superb ball that was met at the back-post by Jeff Hendrick who looped a header onto the roof of the net. “I’m not looking for any excuses, though, we had more to give”.
“I was only a young lad and didn’t know the political situation as acutely as we’ve all been made aware of since”.
O’Neill had highlighted the importance of an away goal in the build up to this game, something that may have influenced Bosnia’s defensively minded line-up that had surprised the locals. It’s a decent result away from home, but we’ve a decent squad and we have enough to get through.
“We had a conversation after Scotland (a Euro 2016 qualifying game in June) and John was very supportive, and felt that this was the way that we wanted to go forward, and it was very pleasing to hear that was the case”.
MARTIN O’NEILL has admitted he would be open to extending his contract as Republic of Ireland manager. But the fog did not get worse after the first 15 minutes of the second half and the referee [Germany’s Felix Brych] saw fit to keep the game going.
“I don’t think we can sit – we were away tonight against a very good Bosnia side and obviously against the crowd, but we will attempt to attack more during the course of the second game”.
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Full-back Stephen Ward said: “It was hard, to be honest, as you couldn’t really see down the other end of the pitch”. “Thankfully for me, Darren (Randolph) was able to just scoop it up but it was a pretty heart-stopping moment”.
