MARTIN O’NEILL REMAINS upbeat about Ireland’s qualification chances despite the team’s loss to Scotland in a crucial qualifier on Friday.
A Shaun Maloney goal 15 minutes from time was enough, as Ireland lost out at the expense of their Group D rivals.
Yet despite this blow, O’Neill said he would have taken seven points at this stage if offered to him at the start of the campaign.
“Would I have taken the points at this minute? I probably would. Would I reverse the scores from Scotland and Germany? Perhaps.
“We have to help ourselves and get help from the crowd when Poland and Scotland get here from the Aviva.
“There’s massive disappointment at this minute because we didn’t get anything from the game, but it’s not gloom, doom and despair.”
And while conceding that the Irish team underperformed last Friday, the Derry native feels Scotland weren’t much better.
“These games have been tight. We’re playing away from home. We didn’t play brilliantly. I thought Scotland didn’t play brilliantly.
“The game was disrupted by fouls, a stop-start game. You’d expect Scotland to have more of the ball, but statistically speaking, it wasn’t that much more.
“We still have to win at home — everything depends on what happens in our home matches.”
As for tonight’s opponents, O’Neill admitted to being familiar with some players more than others.
“There’s quite a number of players I recognise from World Cup duty and new players I don’t recognise so well.
“It’ll be a test for us. I thought they played brilliantly in the World Cup.”
Originally published 06.15
Typical media witch-hunt when all the poor lad wants is £400k per week.
@Chris Finch: would you not want to get as much as you can in the same situation? He’s got all the leverage.
Alot of talk of rashford having a great season but I think he has 14 league goals so far, hardly earth shattering. He’s behind Toney who’s playing in an inferior team, behind Salah who has been average and playing in a very poor pool team. He still needs to do alot more before he can be considered top class (consistency and more goals for one), nevermind world class.
@Paul Mallon: 27 goals in 44 appearances, Kane has 23 in 39, salah has 22 in 39
@Paul Mallon: I think its more akin to praise Drogba got, when we weren’t all dictated and obsessed by stats. Didier only scored more than 12 league goals twice in his whole Chelsea career. But its the weight and points value on the goals. The nuance of them as oppose to just looking at a stat. The winner in a 2-1 win weighs more than a hat trick in a 7-0 win. I also think its convenient to only count league goals in a season where Rashford’s team has won a cup, and is still in 2 others.
Highest scoring winger in Europe top 5 leagues. Not worth 500 all the same.
£500000 is a lot of free meals
£500000 is a lot of free meals
Media again
Just put in clauses that if his form drops so does his wage!!
@Paul Mallon: compared to last season when people thought it would be best for him to leave for another club, he is having a good season. Where does it say he’s having the best season of all goalscorers in the league though? Who said that? It seems to be fabricated out of thin air for the sake of being negative.