Michael O’Neill set to lead his country for the 100th time in crucial World Cup qualifier against Germany
As Michael O’Neill closes in on his 100th game in charge of his country his thoughts turn to legendary Northern Ireland manager Billy Bingham.
O’Neill will join Bingham in the 100+ column when he leads his side in the crucial World Cup qualifier against Germany this evening.
Bingham handed O’Neill his international debut as a fresh-faced teenager and he admitted that his former boss has maybe rubbed off on him as he bids to emulate his achievements of reaching a World Cup finals.
“It’s a nice thing to have [100 games in charge],” said O’Neill. “Billy put a lot of faith in me giving me my international debut at 18 years of age.
“I’d only been in the professional game at the time for maybe three or four months at Newcastle at that time in my career.
“Maybe you know the fact that he put that faith in me has maybe influenced me to put faith in young players as well you know.
“I think that it’s a nice thing to have and something for me to be proud of but it’ll be made all the sweeter obviously if we get the right result.”
Group A is finely poised with Northern Ireland, Germany and Slovakia all level on six points with three games played.
A positive result against Julian Nagelsmann’s side would put O’Neill’s boys in a healthy position ahead of November’s final two group games but the boss knows they have to manage the occasion tonight.
“I think as a young team you probably have to manage that a little bit, but I think based off the past and the big games that we’ve played in, we haven’t let the occasion get the better of us,” said the Northern Ireland boss.
“We’ve just gone out and done our job and do what we’re asked, and I don’t see that being any different.
“You can do all the tactics and know your job, but you have to go out there and do it, and you have to do it 100 per cent, you have to do it properly.”
O’Neill has oversaw some big results and performances in his previous 99 games in charge, but another World Cup qualifying win back in 2014, which ended a 595-day winless run, still lives large in his memory.
“I look back to the first game that I won as an international,” he recalled. “It was hard because I was an international manager here against Russia, with Fabio Capello as the manager.
“I remember that very fondly as well, because at that point I thought I might never win a match as an international manager. So it was a great start for us to be able to do that.
“I think at different points in your career, you take different pleasures from different positive results. We had some great results in 2018, and great performances as well. I don’t really look back and say that they’re the highlights of my career.
“I’m not really that kind of person that I’m looking for highlights, I’m just looking for progression.
“Obviously, we have an opportunity in the game tomorrow night to put ourselves in a really strong position in the group, but it’s a big ask.
“I think people have to realise that it’s a big ask against still one of the top teams, international teams, in European football.
“I think we saw that. Whilst we were disappointed to lose in Cologne, we saw the strength of the German squad, with the changes that Nagelsmann was able to make between game one and Game two, and obviously to be able to bring substitutions into the game, that made them stronger in that game.
“We’ll have to deal with a lot tomorrow night, and we have to be ready for that. We have the opportunity now to do what Slovakia did, and we have to obviously aspire to do that.”
