LEEK AND DESTROY
O’neill tells his Ireland players: seize the day
MARTIN O’NEILL has urged his Ireland squad not to ‘die wondering’ ahead of tomorrow night’s must-win World Cup clash with Wales in Cardiff. And the man who cap- tained Northern Ireland in the 1982 World Cup has reminded them they could be facing the likes of Leo Messi if they get the win they so desperately desire. If Ireland beat Wales and Serbia lose at home to
MARTIN O’NEILL is not convinced there will be needle in tomorrow’s World Cup clash in Cardiff, but he hopes his players keep their heads when it comes to threading a key pass when the chance comes.
The last time Ireland faced Wales, they lost captain Seamus Coleman to a sickening double leg break after a horror tackle by Neil Taylor.
Some expect Coleman’s team mates not to forget that ahead of the rematch in Cardiff City’s stadium in the Welsh capital, but O’neill insists the thought has not crossed his mind.
He does, however, expect a clash of some intensity, and says tomorrow night will be a night for cool heads, not hotheads.
“We need a couple of things,” O’neill said, after Friday night’s 2-0 win over Moldova. “With the intense atmosphere there you need to play with your head and you have to play with a great deal of intensity too and the two don’t always marry.
“And if we have some chances like we had on Friday night we have to take them and be more clinical, it’s really as simple as that.
“Eventually, if you keep spurning chances like that, you are not going to win football matches.
“I have not mentioned anything about needle because we have not mentioned Wales at all and there is no point in me saying something if I am not carrying it out with the players. “I don’t know if there is going to be any heat in it. “I can imagine the game being like Scotland at Celtic Park. That became like a league game and it might turn out to be exactly the same. But you are promoting needle here at this minute but it is not in my mindset.” O’neill mentioned missed chances without naming the culprit – Shane Long, who put two sitters wide in either half. The Southampton striker has scored just once in this qualifying campaign in last October’s 3-1 win over Moldova. Daryl Murphy’s brace could get him the nod on Monday, even if Long is a regular under O’neill, but the manager did seem unimpressed by the younger forward. “I will replay the game again and have a look at it but it is probably worth emphasising again that centre forwards get great confidence from scoring goals and he has missed a couple of chances there tonight,” he said.
“I will have a look at it and see how he is but it would have been nice if one of those chances went in.
“It would have been a big boost for him.”
O’neill spoke frequently of Ireland being ruthless up front, but the good news is that Gareth Bale, the most ruthless of Welsh forwards, is not playing tomorrow.
“Gareth Bale is a top quality player. Outside Messi and Ronaldo there’s a group of seven or eight players and he is definitely one of them, no question about it,” O’neill said.
“I am sure Wales will feel they have a better chance of winning if he was playing, that’s the nature of the game.”