Martin O’Neill was once again left to marvel at the Republic of Ireland’s resilience as they came from behind in Serbia to open their World Cup qualifying account with a hard-earned point, while he also denied his interest in the Hull City job.
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As for Northern Ireland, as being not the strongest team in the tournament, the team was able to surprise his game.
“I thought first half we were very good at times, we defended well, we counter-attacked well, but. we should have done better with the final pass”, said O’Neill. He booked two of our players early on and if he’s going to book one of us down one side, he has to book their player down the other side.
Indeed, Ireland can be backed at a chunky 16/5 (4.20) with Paddy Power to pick up three precious points from this match, while the odds compilers offer 23/10 (3.30) that this Group D curtain raiser ends in stalemate.
Former Ireland global Niall Quinn said: “The association will be delighted, of course, to hear him say that as well, just like to see his signature on the piece of paper too”.
“We are all really fond of the manager, we would all like to see him being given that chance to go and prove himself at club level”.
The loss of defender Craig Cathcart through injury is a blow to the visitors but, nevertheless, Northern Ireland will feel confident that they can get a result against a side that has won just one of their last six World Cup qualifiers on home turf. Delighted with the fact that we created chances as well. “I think we should have pushed a bit more and then we should win the match”. Furthermore, Muslin’s charges have hit two or more goals in each of their last 13 home victories and Paddy Power go 13/10 (2.30) that Serbia score a couple of times.
“We’re not going to come here to a team of the Czech Republic’s calibre and dominate possession of the ball”.
Ireland managed to hold on to the narrow 1-0 advantage until the half-time whistle as Serbia were booed off. “They have trained with no ill effects”, said O’Neill.
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It was announced that a pitch inspection would take place just 90 minutes before the scheduled kickoff but despite rain continuing to fall, it has been decided that the game will go ahead as planned.
