“I went, “What are you crying for?’ He said, ‘I don’t know, I can’t stop crying”.
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O’Neill went with a bold team selection against Ukraine, dropping talismanic striker Kyle Lafferty after the opening 1-0 defeat by Poland, and turning instead to the inexperienced Conor Washington, who repaid his coach with tireless chasing and pressuring of the Ukrainian defenders.
A flying header from defender Gareth McAuley and Niall McGinn’s injury-time strike handed the Irish their first ever Euros finals victory leaving everything to play for against Germany. Lots of people said we wouldn’t get a point.
O’Neill signed a new four-year contract with the IFA in March but his exploits in guiding Northern Ireland to France and the plaudits he received for his bold selection gamble in the 2-0 win over Ukraine in Lyon last Thursday have raised expectations of the 46-year-old landing a prominent club job in England or Scotland. “Our specialists work with him but nothing can be declared at the moment”, Malowiejski said. I think that of the 16 goals scored by them in the qualification rounds, nine of them were from set-pieces so we understood that they can score impressive goals from set-pieces and we were preparing for this kind of football. I thought that they were just a bit tired in their first game, their first major game.
Germany face Northern Ireland, while Poland meet Ukraine.
“We are playing against our neighbors, Poland”.
“Of course we want to be better in attack, to create more goal-scoring chances”. There weren’t many of us who deserved to start after the Poland game but everyone who stepped in was fantastic.
Michael O’Neill’s charges take on the world champions in Paris on Tuesday, and with three points already on board, they are still in contention for a spot in the knockout stages. As mention, Germany are struggling to score and Northern Ireland will look to park the bus so this result makes a lot of sense.
“They still talk about what happened in the 80s and they will talk about these players now”, McIlroy added. They have a ridiculous amount of quality but in terms of fear, this isn’t an industry you can have fear in.
Germany manager Joachim Low may be able to select from a stellar cast in Paris next week, but Leeds United’s Stuart Dallas believes Northern Ireland skipper Steven Davis is his country’s underrated gem.
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“For me to score on top of that was unbelievable, and to celebrate in front of our fans was incredible”.
