Dominant Northern Ireland left ‘sore’ over defeat to Bosnia
AS IF UEFA’s new Nations League wasn’t confusing enough already, Northern Ireland now have to work out how they contrived to lose their opening group game to Bosnia.
Rarely will they dominate a match quite like this and fail to win, never mind end up beaten.
Michael O’Neill’s side had 68 per cent of the possession, 25 shots and 18 corners — the 17th of which led to Will Grigg scoring in injury-time.
But a thoroughly impressive performance was undermined by goals in either half from Haris Duljevic and Elvis Saric on a puzzling afternoon at Windsor Park.
It leaves Northern Ireland facing a battle to win promotion from the curiously named Group B3 with their next two fixtures away in Austria and Bosnia.
‘It’s a sore one,’ said O’Neill. ‘It’s a good lesson as well, because it shows the nature of international football and you do get punished. In the past Northern Ireland teams may have gone under in that situation but not this group of players. They showed their capability to go right to the whistle.
Debutant goalkeeper Bailey Peacock-Farrell was not tested for half an hour until he was called upon to save from Edin Dzeko, but it was a warning that Northern Ireland failed to heed.
Six minutes later, Dzeko guided a low cross to the edge of the six-yard box for Duljevic to score with a first-time finish.
Northern Ireland had numerous chances to equalise before they were hit with another sucker punch in the 64th minute.
A throw-in level with their box looked to have been dealt with as Craig Cathcart headed back towards Peacock-Farrell.
But it was short and allowed Saric to steal past the young Leeds keeper and score in an empty net.
‘I’ll take responsibility,’ said Cathcart. ‘I maybe didn’t put enough on it and we are just so disappointed given the rest of the performance.
‘It was one of the most one-sided defeats I’ve ever played in.’
Grigg finally found a way past Bosnia keeper Ibrahim Sehic from close range in the 92nd minute.
IRELAND (4-2-3-1): Peacock-Farrell; McLaughlin (Boyce 70min), J Evans, Cathcart, Lewis; McGinn (Ward 76), Norwood; Davis, Saville, Dallas; Lafferty (Grigg 69). Subs (not used): Carson, McGovern, Smith, Washington, Ferguson, C Evans, Jones, McNair, Whyte. BOSNIA (4-3-3): Sehic; Besic, Sunjic, Zukanovic, Civic (Zakaric 76); Saric (Krunic 67), Cimirot, Pjanic (Bajic 83); Visca, Dzeko, Duljevic. Subs: Kjosevski, Piric, Nastic, Prcic, Kodro-Maksumic, Milosevic. Booked: Civic, Pjanic, Dzeko. Referee: P Kralovec (Czech Republic).