Michael O'Neill relieved with Northern Ireland's World Cup qualifying draw against Switzerland
Tuesday 17 October 2017 16:15, UK
Michael O'Neill admits he was relieved Northern Ireland avoided Italy and Croatia in their World Cup qualifying play-off draw.
Northern Ireland will face Switzerland in a two-legged tie to reach next year's tournament in Russia, with the first game to be played at Windsor Park.
O'Neill conceded he would have preferred to have the second leg in Northern Ireland, but believes their record of seven clean sheets from 10 games in their qualifying campaign means they should fear no one.
"We're pleased with the draw, particularly to miss Italy and Croatia," O'Neill told Sky Sports News.
"Switzerland will be a difficult opponent but I do believe it's an opponent we can overcome. The first leg at home, hopefully we can have a positive result to take to Switzerland.
"Sometimes you get the benefit of an away goal when you play the second leg away. It's a game we're very capable of winning over 180 minutes."
O'Neill added: "We have to manage the game carefully at home. The key is to make sure you're in the tie as long as possible. The aim is certainly to take a lead to Switzerland.
"Possibly you'd have preferred it the other way around, but you don't get everything. We've been formidable in Belfast and we have to put on another performance like we have done over the last four years."
Switzerland won nine of their 10 qualifying fixtures, only missing out on an automatic route to the finals after losing to Portugal.
Although ranked highest in FIFA's world rankings of any of the possible opponents Northern Ireland could have been drawn against, O'Neill believes their results may not tell the whole story.
"I think to be honest their group was probably the easiest, but hopefully they're maybe, mentally, a little bit disappointed having led the group from start to finish, to miss out on the automatic place and now face a play-off," O'Neill added.
"Our job is to make that as difficult as possible and I'm certain we'll do that."
O'Neill has been linked with the vacant Scotland job following Gordon Strachan's departure, but the Northern Ireland boss insists his attention is solely on getting to Russia.
"I haven't even given any thought to that," said O'Neill. "My focus has been on this draw and will be on Switzerland and getting us to the first World Cup in 30-odd years."
