Draw holds no fears for us, declares Baraclough Northern Ireland’s path to
Bullish boss believes Northern Ireland will meet ‘tough’ challenges head on
NORTHERN Ireland manager Ian Baraclough has insisted that while his team will have respect for their World Cup group opponents, they will show no fear when the qualifying campaign kicks off in March.
Baraclough has acknowledged that being drawn alongside Italy, Switzerland, Bulgaria and Lithuania is “tough”, but points out that playing in a five team group rather than six will benefit the Northern Ireland players and that they are capable of producing big performances and positive results against anyone.
Only the group winners are guaranteed to qualify for the World Cup finals in Qatar, with the runners-up involved in the play-offs.
Italy, who have won the tournament four times and most recently in 2006, will be hot favourites to qualify as top dogs, with most expecting the Swiss — No.16 in the Fifa rankings, just six places below the Italians — to roll into second spot with Northern Ireland, Bulgaria and Lithuania fighting it out for third, fourth and fifth.
Baraclough has other ideas.
Northern Ireland have not played Italy since 2011 when Nigel Worthington took charge for the final time in a 3-0 defeat in a European Championship clash, but it was just three years ago that the team lost to Switzerland in agonising circumstances in a World Cup play-off, going down 1-0 on aggregate to a controversial penalty in the two-legged tie.
Baraclough, whose side lost to Slovakia in the Euro 2020 playoff last month, said: “The draw is tough but we are in a five team group, which will hopefully benefit us.
“I think Bulgaria coming out of pot four are one of the toughest teams from that pot, so it could have been a little kinder, but it is what it is. We know we can compete with Switzerland and, on any given day, there is a chance you could get a result against Italy as well. We are not massively disappointed with it.
“We were always going to be playing one of the powerhouses and Italy obviously have a very good record at World Cups. It is a team we haven’t played for a little while and we will look forward to going there and competing. At times Italy have had slip ups in the group stages where they have been expected to romp their group and it hasn’t worked out that way.
“They have had a few results that have gone against them, and you have to hope they have an off night when we face them because they are one of the biggest and better football nations.
“With Switzerland in t he World Cup play-offs, we went there and drew, so a lot of our players will know what to expect from them. They have steadily made their way up the rankings over the last few years. It will be interesting playing them and we know we can be competitive against them.
“As for Bulgaria and Lithuania, both are eastern European countries and notoriously difficult nations to play. They are very passionate about the game and physically strong, so we have to be ready for that challenge.
“Like I said, Bulgaria are one of the more difficult teams from pot four.”
In October and November, Northern Ireland resources were stretched with three internationals in a short space of time compared to the normal double headers. Again there will be three matches in international windows next year but the five team group means Baraclough’s side won’t always be playing competitive fixtures.
He says: “In March and Sep
tember, we will have a friendly game within those three fixtures, and with the amount of players we have it wouldn’t have benefited us playing triple headers, so we have to be thankful for not being in a six team group.”
Asked if he was hopeful that the national team could have a real shot at qualifying for their first World Cup since 1986, the Northern Ireland boss stated: “Yes, I’d like to think so. You can’t go into the campaign and fear anyone. Yes, respect them, but don’t fear them, and we know that if we can play at the top of our game we can get results.
“Come March when the qualifiers start, hopefully it will be a very difficult squad to pick, and nothing is guaranteed for anybody.
“That was the message in October and November: that players have to be playing at the top of their game and be playing regularly for their clubs because there are players making a fist for selection.”
What would really help Baraclough, captain Steven Davis and the rest of the side would be a packed Windsor Park with the Northern Ireland fans roaring the team on. That passion in the stands, with only limited numbers allowed in due to Covid-19 restrictions, was missed in the home Nations League games and the all important play-off defeat to Slovakia.
“I think we saw in the last few months when Windsor is empty, it is difficult for players to perform in it because they are used to a bouncing Windsor Park,” said Baraclough.
“To have the fans back in full voice will be great, but we will have to see how that goes come March time and see whether we can get more in than what was allowed for the November games.”