Northern Ireland were “not good enough” and were “overawed” in their 1-0 loss to Poland in their first match of Euro 2016, according to Steven Davis and Kyle Lafferty.
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In Sunday’s game, O’Neill refused to let Lewandowski get free and instead allowed space for Milik, who in the first half was unable to beat goalkeeper Michael McGovern in the 28th minute and three minutes later squandered an excellent chance by sailing a shot over the crossbar.
Northern Ireland’s 30-year wait to play in a major global tournament ended in disappointment after it was beaten by Poland on Sunday.
O’Neill acknowledged that for some of his players it was a huge leap from lower tier League One football in England to play against the likes of Bayern Munich star Robert Lewandowski and his Poland teammates.
It was a massive game for us to come in, (with) fantastic support and the prestige of the game. “I have to give great credit to my players because we stayed in the game”.
Northern Ireland’s chances of progression from Group C now look grim with Ukraine and World Cup holders Germany to come. “Once we lost the goal even though we tried to get something out of the game we didn” t create anything of real significance’.
Despite this, they conceded only eight goals in qualifying and are unbeaten in their last 12 matches, a run stretching back to March past year and the longest in the team’s history. This team has played the total number of 10 matches and out of that Poland has won 6 matches and managed to draw a single game and the remaining 3 matches resulted in the draw.
“Poland will be a good test for any team”.
Poland boss Adam Nawalka can also afford to have concerns, after seeing just three of his side’s 15 total shots find their way on target, per WhoScored.com. Everything around the tournament has been top class.
“Obviously there are positives to take with our work-rate and desire as always and I think we did defend well for the majority of the game but we know we can do a lot better in terms of with the ball”.
Meanwhile today the City of Belfast Northern Ireland Supporters Club will gather to lay flowers at the spot on the promenade in Nice.
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You have got to remember these players are in the finals of a major tournament for the first time and maybe it will take them time to adapt to it.
