We will have to try to win because I feel that Bosnia are capable of scoring a goal and therefore I think our mindset should be to try to win the game.
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But the away goal celebrations were short lived as Eden Dzeko emerged to level proceedings just three minutes later.
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”. The Norwich playmaker had previously played away from home only in Gibraltar as O’Neill has favoured a more protective midfield.
Edin Dzeko equalized in the 85th minute to salvage a 1-1 draw for Bosnia-Herzegovina against Ireland in the first leg of their playoff for next year’s European Championship.
Ireland named Elliot in their squad for the two-legged clash with Bosnia and Herzegovina on Sunday night.
“In the second half it kept getting worse and worse”. A sloppy Glenn Whelan was the main culprit, and it soon became apparent that an initially nervous Bosnia had realised there was little in the opposition to worry them. A draw, which would be a great result for Ireland, is 47/20, whilst a win is priced at 15/4.
It was O’Neill’s side, however, who were making most of the errors.
But in the meantime, full-back Ervin Zukanovic might have broken the deadlock when a 14th-minute Pjanic corner reached him unmarked eight yards out, but he failed to make meaningful contact.
“Obviously we need to score, but there is still 90 minutes to play and we fancy ourselves against anyone”.
The second half in Zenica was played in heavy fog and the visitors were relieved that they managed to complete the match.
“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”.
Despite that, it was still the home side finding each other with more passes, and creating more chances.
Central defender Richard Keogh said: “Any game you go into, you want to keep a clean sheet”.
Liam Brady: “It’s all coming down our left-hand side”.
Senad Lulic then missed a sitter on the hour, allowing Randolph to parry a feeble close-range effort after a ricochet from a poor clearance fell for the left winger.
But it could have been so much better for Ireland, as they took a surprise lead late in the contest.
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Chelsea goalkeeper and Bosnia captain Asmir Begovic, and the Roma pair of Edin Dzeko and Miralem Pjanic are household names in Mehmed Bazdarevic’s team but ex-Manchester City striker Dzeko is the catalyst in attack.
