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Michael O\u2019Neill has warned that Northern Ireland must have their key players available next March if they are to get past Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Euro 2020 qualifying play-offs.<\/p>\nMichael O\u2019Neill has warned that Northern Ireland must have their key players available next March if they are to get past Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Euro 2020 qualifying play-offs.<\/p>\n
An illness for Jonny Evans and injury to Jamal Lewis left Northern Ireland short-handed against Germany in Frankfurt on Tuesday and it duly turned into a punishing night as they lost their final Group C fixture 6-1, with Serge Gnabry bagging a hat-trick for the hosts.<\/p>\n
While that was taking place, Wales\u2019 2-0 win over Hungary confirmed Northern Ireland\u2019s remaining path to Euro 2020 will go through Bosnia.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Neill will be grateful that nothing as difficult as a trip to Germany lies in store, but Bosnia beat Northern Ireland home and away in the Nations League last year and cannot be taken lightly.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we have a full squad I believe we can beat Bosnia come March,\u201d said O\u2019Neill, who plans to remain in charge for the fixture alongside his new duties as Stoke boss.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we\u2019re five or six players down it\u2019s very difficult to progress to the finals, it\u2019s as simple as that.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a 25-man squad and we don\u2019t really have players outside of that.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo get past Bosnia we will have to keep (Edin) Dzeko and (Miralem) Pjanic quiet as they are key to their performance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though Bosnia got the better of his side last year, O\u2019Neill is confident a fully-fit Northern Ireland squad is much better equipped to deal with the threat this time around.<\/p>\n
They were picked off on the counter-attack in a 2-1 defeat at Windsor Park, despite dominating possession and creating a string of chances, while Northern Ireland hit the post three times in a 2-0 defeat in Sarajevo.<\/p>\n
Both matches came early in a process of O\u2019Neill refreshing his squad following the 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign and a transition to a more possession-based approach going forward.<\/p>\n
Since then the likes of Lewis and Bailey Peacock-Farrell have established themselves as key players and, after four straight losses in the Nations League, results improved considerably with four wins and a draw from their eight Euro 2020 qualifiers.<\/p>\n
Arguably the results do not tell the full story as they led against Holland in Rotterdam until the 80th minute and only lost to two stoppage-time goals, missed a penalty as the reverse fixture finished 0-0 in Belfast, and even had a brief early lead in Frankfurt thanks to Michael Smith\u2019s strike.<\/p>\n
\u201cOverall this has been a good campaign for us,\u201d O\u2019Neill said. \u201cThirteen points, there\u2019s no shame in that in a group with Germany and Holland. For many of our players this is their first campaign and they can only learn from nights like this.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe players will learn both from the Nations League campaign and this campaign and the new players we have introduced have certainly been developing.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut when you get to the play-off it\u2019s not about style of play, it\u2019s about getting through, it\u2019s as simple as that.\u201d<\/p>\n