Northern Ireland v Austria

MANAGER’S VIEW

It’s hard to come back down to earth after achieving the kind of result we managed against Bosnia and Herzegovina last Thursday night, but we must now switch our focus to the UEFA Nations League and tonight’s match against Austria.

The boys put in an incredible shift against the Bosnians in the UEFA Euro 2020 Path B play-off semi-final. We were off the pace in the first half, however we were much better after the break and got in their faces more. I thought across the 120 minutes we worked our socks off, created some good chances and showed incredible spirit. I asked the players to leave nothing on the pitch in Sarajevo and they most certainly delivered on that front. Our preparations for the game included practising penalties and those assigned to take spot-kicks showed true grit and determination, and plenty of skill, to help us secure a place in next month’s play- off final via a penalty shoot-out. It will be a huge night in Belfast when Slovakia come to town on 12 November, however right now it’s time to show our mettle in the Nations League. In the first edition of the competition back in 2018 our opponents tonight defeated Northern Ireland home and away. We would dearly love to add to our points tally in the second edition of the league, starting with this game tonight. Austria are a solid outfit with quality operators and I know my players will have to be at the top of their game if they are going to get a result against them. Naturally, we were in a celebratory mood after the game in Sarajevo, but the players are now fully recovered from their wounds of battle and ready to go again. We have done our homework on Austria, which of course we do on all our opponents, and we know

they have many strengths. But even the best teams have weaknesses and we will be trying to exploit those. After tonight we will be heading off to Norway for another League B Group 1 match and I’m confident we will produce a much better performance against the Norwegians this time than we did in Belfast last month. We, of course, used 17 players in the Bosnia game and I am aiming to dig deep into my squad reserves once again over the next two matches. I hope you all enjoy the game tonight and I hope we give the 600 fans who have been allowed into the ground something to cheer about. Finally, like so many other people have done in recent days, I would like to offer huge congratulations to our captain Steven Davis on breaking Pat Jennings’ long-standing caps record for Northern Ireland. Reaching the milestone of 120 caps, as he did last Thursday night, is no mean feat. It takes a lot of hard work and dedication over many years to set such records. Steven is a fantastic professional and an exceptional person who fully deserves all the plaudits which have come his way, from his various managers down the years, from his former and current team-mates and from the wider football family. Nice guys don’t always win but in this case the nice guy has smashed it. Ian Baraclough Northern Ireland Manager

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