On the idea of midfielder-cum-wing-back Brady stepping up to the plate, O’Neill said: “Yes, I think he can”. The Czech Republic most recently lost a game 0 – 2 to Turkey while Northern Ireland lost a game 1 – 0 to Wales.
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Czech winger Filip Novak then squandered his team’s best chance as he blasted wide from five yards, while Ladislav Krejci and Jan Kopic both missed the target in the closing stages. “It’s going to be a tough place to go and we need to take the confidence from the Euros and just play our game”. It’s going to be a tight group.
“This sets us on our way and we have to win our home games against San Marino and Azerbaijan”.
After the break, it took some time for either side to threaten again in front of goal, but Serbia remained the more risky outfit going forward.
Key striker Kyle Lafferty is out of favour at Norwich, Paddy McNair is yet to amass an hour of cumulative top-flight football for new club Sunderland and Jamie Ward, who moved on loan to Burton this week, has made just one league start this term.
In France, Martin O’Neill’s team bookended a comprehensive 3-0 defeat at the hands of Belgium with a 1-1 draw against Sweden and a dramatic 1-0 win against Italy en route to the last-16 before suffering a narrow 2-1 defeat at the hands of the host-nation in Paris.
“You can’t expect us to control the game for 90 minutes in a match away from home against Serbia, he said”.
Playing in front of a half-empty stadium as fans registered their disdain for their woeful form which has seen them fail to qualify for the past three major finals, Serbia took the lead through a penalty from Southampton’s Dusan Tadic, and he celebrated by sucking his thumb to welcome the recent birth of his second child. We had four lads starting who aren’t regulars.
“These are the challenges we have as a team”. We have to be very well structured and organised, and show our quality. Obviously, they got a lot of possession, particularly in the second half because we couldn’t get the ball off them.
Soon after, Serbia should have put the game to bed when Randolph shelled a free-kick delivery, but Andrija Pavlovic could only hit the underside of the crossbar with his free shot. “What we have to improve a little bit is when we do have it”.
“I have to understand why he did what he did”, he said. Of course, there were a couple of situations that were not up to us and were not our fault, but these things happen.
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Turning his attention back to the result against Serbia, he added: “You don’t know realise hard it is to come away from home and score twice in such difficult conditions”.
