Michael O'Neill is satisfied with Northern Ireland's position in World Cup Group C
Thursday 10 November 2016 15:46, UK
Northern Ireland manager Michael O'Neill is happy with his team position in World Cup Group C ahead from the visit of Azerbaijan on Friday.
O'Neill's side have four points from their opening three fixtures and have the opportunity to climb above their opponents with a win at Windsor Park.
World Cup holders Germany are cruising towards the 2018 finals, but the Northern Ireland, Azerbaijan, Norway and Czech Republic are vying for second and a route to Russia via the play-offs.
O'Neill does not believe any result will define the campaign at this stage, though he is wary of falling further behind an improving team who have never reached the finals of a major tournament.
"To have seven points after four games - and to have gone away to the Czech Republic and Germany - is a good return and will set us up nicely for the second half of the campaign," O'Neill said.
"I don't think it's a game which will be make or break, there are still six games after that. Ourselves, Azerbaijan, the Czech Republic and Norway, there's very little between us, the games have shown that.
"Our aim is to put ourselves in a position of strength and three points will do that. We wouldn't want to be six points behind Azerbaijan. We have to stop their momentum from the opening three games and it will be nice for us to be sitting second."
Parallels can be drawn between Azerbaijan's start to this group and the way Northern Ireland, then also a pot-five team, opened up their qualification process for Euro 2016.
The early momentum engineered by O'Neill's team led to them securing a passage to France, though it was not all plain sailing, and he wants to give Robert Prosinecki's team their first bump in the road in Belfast.
"I see similarities certainly in terms of where we came from and how our confidence grew and we've talked about that with the players - they are obviously a team that is capable of doing that as well," O'Neill said.
"Our job tomorrow night is to create a road block and make it as difficult as possible and make sure we take the three points.
"The biggest thing in any campaign is how you react when the result goes against you, and we saw that in our qualification campaign - we had to play Finland and win having lost in Romania and we hope after Friday night Azerbaijan will face a similar problem in March."
