O’Neill ready for return to Paradise
O’Neill’s players have now landed big results in two of three qualifiers thanks to late goals, proving a gambler’s mindset is beneficial at times.
“The other night was definitely one where we were going for it anyway, definitely trying to get something out of the game. There is a possibility that as you open the game up, the Germans are capable of catching you up and scoring that second goal. That was always the risk. But I don’t mind that, I don’t mind getting beat two or three if we have a chance of getting something out of the game, and that’s why there was this encouragement to go forward in the last stage. Now obviously if you had asked me at the start of the game would I take a draw (smiles)… but taking a draw and playing for a draw are two different things.
“If we had lost the game 1-0, I’d have been really irritated and disappointed for the goal we conceded. We could have stopped it a couple of times during the course of it and particularly we could have got out to close it down, which is something that we really do need to do.
“But what I felt about the players is that they didn’t lose heart. It’s easy for me to say that now that we got the late equaliser but we also had a chance before that – the fellow’s blocked it when Wes (Hoolahan) has almost had a full shot on it.”
After successfully negotiating a potentially tricky away trip to Georgia, making hay while the sun shone against Gibraltar and, now, putting on a remarkable late, late show at the Veltins Arena, next for O’Neill is something more akin to perhaps a Championship derby on what should be a stirringly atmospheric night in Celtic Park in Glasgow next month.
“I will take a wee bit of time to think about it,” says the Ireland manager, for whom the visit to Celtic Park will also be a trip down memory lane. “Scotland are on a good run at the moment, they really are, they’re playing with plenty of confidence. Gordon (Strachan) has been involved with them for a couple of seasons now and he has them playing well.
“I don’t know what their reaction was to us getting a late goal in the game on Tuesday night but I do think that we will face a different set of circumstances there. But the great thing for us getting that goal is that the exhilaration is so apparent and, in terms of momentum, it is important for us to try and keep that confidence level high.”
O’Neill is happy to highlight the team spirit which, even when Ireland went a goal behind in Gelsenkirchen, was never found wanting.
“That’s vitally important and we need this, we need this spirit,” he says. “I think the players lost a bit of confidence last year where maybe they were in a position against Austria and it was a real disappointment to concede a late goal in that game. And keeping that spirit going is really important for us. But we’ve also got one or two players who can do a wee bit for us and it’s important for them to be fit. And, you never know, James McCarthy and Seamus Coleman might also be fit in a month’s time. I would be hoping that, sooner or later, they will be back playing at club level.”
How his players coped against the world champions on Tuesday in the absence of two such key men was a source of satisfaction for O’Neill who, incidentally, has confirmed that Derby full-back Cyrus Christie is now firmly on course to declare for Ireland.
“(David) Meyler did fine for us,” says O’Neill of the Cork man who deputised for Coleman. “When I told him he was playing full-back, he just had a little look (raises eyes). But he’ll play anywhere.”
As well as injury issues, the various fitness levels and even age profiles of Ireland’s players were other factors which came into play on Tuesday, especially when O’Neill had to consider his substitutions.
“I was talking to the players about that and about the ones not playing regularly for their clubs,” he says. “Darron Gibson is definitely a very, very decent footballer. But he had already played the other evening (against Gibraltar), although I know it wasn’t stretching him. Robbie is 34 and maybe can’t keep going in two games so we had all sorts of things coming into it.
“We wanted to make one change in the game relatively quickly, because while we were doing okay, I just wanted us to try to push forward and keep the ball a little bit. Easier said than done against the Germans, but eventually I got all three on and that’s why it was a great effort because Stephen Ward was injured and we played effectively the last nine or 10 minutes with 10 men.”
In the end — the very end — it was centurion defender John O’Shea who popped up in the box to score a predator’s goal.
“You couldn’t write that script for him,” says O’Neill. “Three goals from a hundred matches? That’s pretty appalling for a centre-half,” O’Neill smiled. “The number of time he comes up for a set-piece, that’s pretty appalling. I must tell him that. It was really delightful, it worked out brilliant for him. What is that — six players with 100 caps for the Republic? That’s fantastic.”
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