O’Neill confident Ireland can go the distance in tight race

Republic of Ireland manager Martin O’Neill says he still believes that the qualification and play-off slots from Ireland’s World Cup group will come down to the last round of games, on November 9th.

The draws in Dublin and Belgrade on Sunday didn’t do much to clarify the likely final outcome.

Serbia and the Republic retain a four-point advantage over their two main group rivals but neither managed the win at the weekend that would have effectively knocked the Welsh or Austrians out of the race.

All four teams must play the group’s two weakest sides before the end of the campaign and while there is clearly potential for a slip up, should Serbia and Ireland manage six points from those games, they would be in a very strong position to secure a top-two finish.

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Predictably, though, O’Neill isn’t getting carried away. “Hmm…a piece of piss that,” he said when it was put to him that four wins would guarantee first place and automatic qualification.

“This group continues to prove a really tight affair with all three games ending in draws,” he observed, a little more seriously, in the wake of Sunday’s games.

“I said it when the draw was made and the results so far are proving that this group could go down to the final day. We remain unbeaten and joint top, alongside Serbia, after six games and it is still all to play for.

“Next up is a very difficult trip to Georgia before a quick turnaround a couple of days later at home to Serbia. Naturally, with only four games left every point is precious. We’ll take some time to review this latest game against Austria, and prepare for the double header in September.”

O’Neill admitted his initial reaction to Sunday’s game was one of disappointment that the game wasn’t won although he remains confident his side can improve on that sort of performance in the group’s closing stages.

“You don’t want to be trailing in matches here and fighting for your lives to get something out of it,” he acknowledged. “We have to address that. The whole intention was to get on the front foot and we did anything but that in the first 15 minutes. And our sloppy play allowed them to take their time and work their way into the game, and as a consequence they took the lead.

Much better

“But Walters gave us the equaliser which I felt our play in the second half deserved…..and momentum with it…and I thought the referee had actually given the goal. It looked that way. But we have to do much, much better in the first half. It’s a 90-minute game.”

The manager denied Ireland’s slow start was down to a sense that the game did not actually have to be won with his players then picking up the pace of things and applying themselves to greater effect only when the prospect of Austria taking all three points and so dramatically reducing the gap in the Group D table arose.

“No, I don’t think so,” he said. “I think we were a wee bit nervous at the start. We’ve given the ball away, Austria played their way into the game, they quelled the crowd and they felt quite comfortable. We had to take them out of that comfort zone. We had to do better. Our intention was to win that game but we’ve a lot more points [than Austria] considering they’ve got some very good players.

“Talking to Paul McGrath and Keith Andrews post game, with the best intentions in the world, you think you are absolutely ready and a couple of things happen, and you just can’t get any momentum going, and that was the case. But we fought back and we’re still in the competition. I think there’s a strength about the side. We lack a few things, as you well know . . . I don’t have to point them out to you, but heart is not one of them.”

“So I think it’s there for us,” he continued. “I think we’ll have to win our home games [against Serbia in September and Moldova three days before the November game in Cardiff], that’s two big matches for us. Georgia is a big match for us; the turnaround is very quick for Serbia. We’ve four games left and we have to get points on the board. But we think we can do it.”

All nine of the European group winners will progress automatically to next summer’s finals in Russia with the eight best second-placed sides, with the ranking calculated on the basis of results against teams who finish fifth or higher in their groups, going into play-offs for a further four spots. As things stand, Ireland are eighth of those nine second placed sides although they are only a point off first place.