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O'Neill: 'I genuinely don't know how we lost'

Ireland’s attention now turns to Saturday’s friendly against Italy in London.

MARTIN O’NEILL STRUGGLED to explain Ireland’s defeat against Turkey.

Jon Walters’ late goal was only a consolation as the Boys in Green lost 2-1, their second straight home defeat under O’Neill and assistant manager Roy Keane.

“I thought that we created a lot of chances in the game and I genuinely don’t know how we lost the match,” O’Neill said afterwards.

A combination of things — probably poor finishing, some great saves as well by the goalkeeper too, but we should have the game out of sight by half time.

Shane Long and John O’Shea both had chances to give Ireland the lead before Ahmet Ozek opened the scoring for the visitors in the 17th minute.

James McClean also had a couple of near misses but by the time Walters came off the bench to score with 13 minutes remaining, Osman Camdal had already doubled Turkey’s lead.

“I thought we played really well,” O’Neill said.

“I was just saying in the dressing room, there are big moments in matches where you have to really defend. You might go 10 or 15 minutes in the match and you’re coasting through and you haven’t been tested but then when the big moments come you have to be stronger.

“Eventually we conceded two goals tonight when I think there should have been less danger.

That said, I thought we were excellent going forward and somebody is going to earn themselves a fortune by being able to put the ball in the net. An absolute fortune.

He added: “That’s two games now and I don’t want to come in with the same message. I’m pleased that we created some really good chances in the match but we’ve been beaten and we would have gained more confidence from winning the match.”

The fact that Ireland have won just one game from four since O’Neill took charge was not lost on the manager.

But he stressed that the tough tests to come against Italy, Costa Rica and Portugal will be the best possible preparation for the Euro 2016 qualifiers.

“From my viewpoint, I would still prefer to win the matches but if these are better tests for us coming up, then so be it.”

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