Northern Ireland manager Michael O'Neill confident for World Cup play-offs
Monday 9 October 2017 15:51, UK
Michael O'Neill says Northern Ireland will go into the World Cup play-off with no fear and confident against any opponent.
O'Neill's side were assured of one of the eight play-off spots before kick-off on Sunday night following Scotland's draw in Slovenia.
The play-offs will be seeded based on the FIFA rankings which are released on October 16, with the top four in one pot -Northern Ireland are currently 20th in the world but that could change after they lost their final two matches in qualifying.
But O'Neill feels the expectation will be on the higher-ranked side to beat Northern Ireland should that hypothetical scenario come to pass.
"The issue of the seedings is something that's out of control and we can only try to get results," he said.
"We're delighted to be in the play-offs and we'll take whatever comes our way.
"It probably would be (a preference to play Wales) and Chris (Coleman) would probably say the same, let's be honest, rather than playing Portugal or Italy, who have had very strong qualifying campaigns.
"We've not looked that far ahead, we're enjoying the fact we've got another massive game to look forward to.
"A two-legged affair is very different to playing these teams over 10 games and we've done well when we've played big sides before; the expectation will lie with them.
"We don't know who lies in wait for us but I'm convinced we'll be ready."
