Wales give Martin O’Neill inside line

Martin O’Neill is hoping to get by Bosnia and Herzegovina with a little help from his friends – in particular Wales manager Chris Coleman.

Coleman’s Wales qualified for the Euro finals behind Belgium in second place in Group B, four points clear of the Bosnians having drawn 0-0 with them in Cardiff last October before losing 2-0 in the return game in Zenica 12 months later. And O’Neill admitted yesterday that he is very keen to get Coleman’s take on Bosnia’s strong finish to the group after what had been a disappointing start to their qualifying campaign, one which saw manager Safet Susic replaced by current boss Mehmed Bazdarevic after just four games.

“I have spoken to Chris and I’m going to meet up with him early next week,” O’Neill said at his squad announcement. “Any information that he can give me about Bosnia is absolutely welcome. I called him a few days ago and he would be very helpful. His home is not a million miles from where I live myself. We will definitely meet up and it would be nice to see what his thoughts were on Bosnia in terms of the change of attitude from the first game in which they played to the one that Bosnia beat them in and Bosnia needed to win. That information would be great.