Germany not invincible, says O’Neill
Germany may never have lost an away World Cup qualifier in their history.
But Michael O’Neill has told his Northern Ireland players that the world champs – who visit Windsor Park this evening – are “formidable but not invincible”.
O’Neill (pictured) has previously joked he would have to invent flaws in the Germans, yet, having won a national record five successive games and not lost a competitive home contest in four years, his side are imbued with belief.
“Analysis is important because it’s how it’s interpreted – we’ve presented the Germans as a formidable opponent but not an invincible opponent,” he said.
“An opponent that on any given night, there’s an opportunity for us to try and find a way to win the game and certainly the players believe that.
“I think Germany are the strongest team in Europe, arguably the world. The players they have coming into their squad seem to adapt to international football very quickly.
“Germany have a very attacking approach – you have to then have weaknesses defensively, potentially. We’ve looked at how they’ve lost goals, maybe from overplaying at the back, lapses in concentration, little things that we have to look to exploit as well.
“We’re under no illusion, we’re not going to come in and suddenly have 60 per cent of the ball, there’s no point preparing as if we are.
“We know the areas where we believe we can hurt Germany. It will need a massive performance and some fine individual moments to win the game.”
O’Neill has tinkered his training so his players are braced for what it is to come in tonight’s Group C clash of the section’s top two.
He has set up scenarios where a team of 10 face a defensive side of six to replicate the type of attacking waves they will face.
“People say, ‘Go and attack’, if we do that we would get beat,” he argued.
“We would get beaten because they have better players. We have to be realistic.
“The biggest thing is to set a team up that’s difficult to beat. Players believe they can win from that platform.”