Ben Blake reports from Bosnia-Herzegovina
MARTIN O’NEILL WILL send his team out claim victory in Monday’s Euro 2016 second leg as he believes Bosnia-Herzegovina are more than capable of scoring in Dublin.
Robbie Brady and Edin Dzeko were the late goalscorers as the sides played out a 1-1 draw in Zenica tonight.
“We’ve got an away goal, which helps, but that could be wiped out in any given minute,” O’Neill told the media at his post-match press conference.
“It was a tough game for us but we fought very strongly and we’re still in the tie with very much everything to play for.
“I don’t think the advantage is with us as I think Bosnia are capable of scoring a goal. We will have to play very strongly again but we’ve given ourselves a chance.
“It was a great boost for us to get the goal and it keeps us alive with something to go for.”
He added: “We will have to try and win because I feel that Bosnia are capable of scoring a goal and therefore I think our mindset should be to try and win the game.
We were away tonight against a very good Bosnia side and the crowd and we will attempt to attack more over the course of the second game. That will be our objective.
Heavy fog after half-time meant it wasn’t easy to see events on the pitch and O’Neill admits that he was worried that the tie might be postponed.
“I was concerned as the fog came down and it looks as if it was deepening in the second half for a period,” he said. “What I didn’t know until afterwards was that if the game had been called off, we would only come back for the rest of the game tomorrow.
“The fog didn’t get any worse so if the referee so what it was like at the start of the second half then he obviously saw fit to keep it going. ”
Both John O’Shea and Jon Walters are available again for the second leg after seeing out their suspensions.
However, while Sunderland defender O’Shea could still miss out after suffering a recurrence of a hamstring injury, Walters will be a welcome boost and Shane Long has not been completely ruled out.
“John (O’Shea) is still doing well but we will see. I think he will join up with us at some stage so we will have a look at that.
“Jon Walters is coming in and we know that he can play in terms of fitness so that will be great and Shane Long hasn’t ruled himself out, which is great to know.
If O’Shea doesn’t make it, the Ireland boss is likely to stick with a central defensive pairing of Ciaran Clark and Richard Keogh after both put in solid performances in Zenica.
I think they were really excellent,” added O’Neill, who also praised referee Felix Brych. “They had a very good job against top quality players and they were outstanding for us.
“I’m delighted the fog didn’t prevent the game from finishing and we can all have our gripes about referees but I thought he was outstanding. I haven’t said that in quite awhile.”
Meanwhile, Bosnian counterpart Mehmed Baždarević was disappointed with his team’s display but believes the tie is still wide open.
“I can only comment on the first half of the game because in the second half I hardly saw anything because it was so difficult to see the pitch,” he said.
“It was a difficult game as we expected but I don’t think we played as well as we should have.
“Unfortunately we did not manage to make life difficult for our opponent throughout the game because they played tough.
“The result is 1-1 and nothing is lost. I’m still an optimist and I think if we play better and have a better attitude then we can win the second leg.”
