A sign of the young team’s improvement, even from a month ago, was their second-half performance against Belarus at home.
In the away game in Hungary, Northern Ireland started the first half well, squandered chances and then lost momentum in the second half as they found themselves in a frustrating draw.
At Windsor Park, however, they came out on a run in the second half after a frustrating first half, scoring five minutes after the break thanks to Daniel Ballard and Dion Charles adding a second from the penalty spot.
O’Neill was delighted not to let his frustrations boil over as he saw a comfortable victory that puts them in the box to win the group.
“You could feel the frustration, we had control of the game, but we were not maximizing it, but in the second half, when you score, the game changes, and I think we handled it very well,” he continued.
“In the second half, we started very well from the beginning, the way we pressed and won the ball back let them know that we were going to be on top of them with physical pressure.”
Now, another step up the ladder for this young and improving team will be winning away from home in the Nations League, something they haven’t achieved this campaign so far, but with Luxembourg arriving on Monday, they have a chance to rectify that. .
“We want to go and try to win the game, we haven’t won away from home so the game is important in terms of showing that we can win away from home.”
