Ireland will be bolstered by the return of Jon Walters and John O’Shea, both of whom missed the first leg through suspension, and Shane Long may have regained fitness by Monday, too. We have got ourselves into this position and we don’t want to throw it away lightly.
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“It’s not a good result but we are hopeful we can swing the tie our way and I still believe we are the better team”, said the former Yugoslavia midfielder.
There has been much talk before this confirmation, with both O’Neill and his assistant Roy Keane making clear that the subject of whether players are really “injured” is still a running sore between club and country.
The only mystery at half-time was why Bosnia had not made more of their superiority, but there was no mystery as to the paucity of chances that Ireland were creating.
Pjanic nearly turned provider three minutes later, but Edin Cocalic and Ervin Zukanovic got in each other’s way when the out-swinging corner picked out the latter.
“I was concerned when the fog came down”, he said.
However, just four minutes later, substitute James McClean was caught out and Ognjen Vranjes was allowed to pull the ball back to Dzeko who stroked the ball home to leave it all-square in the Zenica gloom.
“The onus is on us now, we have to try and win as I feel Bosnia are capable of scoring a goal and therefore our mindset should be to try and win the game”, he said.
They then sat out UEFA EURO 2000 after an away goals defeat by Turkey in the play-offs.
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.
“It’s a big away goal”. It’s a decent result away from home, but we’ve a decent squad and we have enough to get through.
“They (Bosnia) have some good players that can hurt us but we hopefully can keep a few of them quiet on Monday night”.
Neil Sherwin is joined by Dale O’Donnell to review the weekend’s Premier League action and discuss Ireland’s chances of beating Bosnia and Herzegovina over two legs in their upcoming playoff tie.
“I’m just glad the game didn’t have to stop, because it was quite bad”.
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Coleman added: “It was very hard”. Striker Bas Dost edged the Dutch, who have not qualified for next summer’s European Championships, in front and Arjen Robben notched a second-half brace to secure victory after Joe Ledley and Emyr Huws looked to have earned the Welsh a draw.
