MICHAEL O’Neill tonight predicted that Scotland can still enjoy a successful Euro 2024 campaign despite the 1-0 defeat they suffered at the hands of his Northern Ireland side at Hampden – because they won’t play such defensive opponents.
Steve Clarke’s men dominated possession in the friendly international with O’Neill’s inexperienced charges this evening – but they failed to create any decent scoring opportunities up front until late on and ended up being on the receiving end of a bitterly disappointing 1-0 loss.
Andy Robertson and his team mates have now gone seven games without triumphing and they only have two more warm-up matches – against Gibraltar in Portugal and Finland in Glasgow – in June before they travel to Germany
But the former Dundee United, Hibernian and St Johnstone player, who led his country through to the last 16 of Euro 2016, believes they will fare far better against tournament hosts Germany, Switzerland and Hungary in Group A this summer.
READ MORE: Scotland 0 Northern Ireland 1: Instant reaction to the burning issues
“Scotland will go to the finals and the games will not be like this,” he said. “They will not have that level of possession in Germany. They won’t face opposition like us who make them play in front of them. They’ll be the ones who sit a little deeper and they’ll have a threat on the counter-attack.
“I would imagine that will suit them a bit better because they have got very good players, you could see that. They are having a little bit of a tricky time, but I wouldn’t be concerned about that. I think they will go to Germany and they will give a really good account of themselves.”
“It was a very good performance from us. We always knew this would be a tough challenge and we would have to be very good without the ball. It is something we have worked very hard on. We have improved a lot with that.
“We forced Scotland into errors in the middle of the pitch and could have capitalised on them a bit better. We had three or four counter attacks we could have done better with. The goal comes as a result of Conor pressing. He did great, it was a great bit of individual quality to score.
“Then the game changes. It is difficult then for Scotland because they are behind and we are not going to leave them a lot of space to play. We didn’t really allow them too many opportunities. We defend set pieces well. Overall, we got everything we needed.”
READ MORE: No excuses for Scotland on a worrying night at Hampden
Former Stoke City manager O’Neill has been linked with the vacancy at Aberdeen and he was asked after the Scotland game if he would be back in the dugout at Hampden for the Pittodrie club’s Scottish Cup semi-final against Celtic next month.
“That speculation is created by you guys,” he said. “I’m not even thinking about that at the minute. I might come to watch the game, but that’s about it.”
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