Improvement on the ball next step for O’Neill’s NI

In Belfast’s friendly on Tuesday night, Northern Ireland manager Michael O’Neill wants his side to enjoy more of the game.

They fought ferociously for the entire 2-1 defeat by Denmark on Saturday in Copenhagen, but Christian Eriksen’s 67th-minute winner sealed it for them.

After just five minutes, Denmark had the lead thanks to Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg’s own goal, but Gustav Isaksen’s fine effort in stoppage time put the visitors on their way to an equaliser.

While O’Neill’s second spell in charge saw Northern Ireland produce some impressive results when the ball was mostly left unattended, the former Stoke manager thinks increasing possession will be the next step for his side.

After Denmark had more than 70% of the possession on Saturday, O’Neill said, “We were never going to be a dominant possession-based team against any of these teams.”

Players who play football in the top five leagues in Europe must compete with those who play football at a League One or Championship level. The level at which the players play their football differs.

Northern Ireland struggled to hit the target throughout the match despite taking an early lead.

O’Neill continued, “We need to be able to retain the ball a little better when we win it back, maybe find a little more in terms of our level of possession as well,” which will help us carry a bigger threat.

O’Neill has consciously faced a higher level of opposition than his team did when they were promoted from the third tier of the Nations League because they will face Germany in World Cup qualifying in September.

In their previous 14 games, they only won four of their matches on Saturday, which came off a 2-0 win over Denmark in Belfast in November 2023.

Northern Ireland scored five goals in their previous defeats to Spain and Sweden in March, but the game against Iceland will present a different set of challenges.

However, Belfast is boosted by their victory over Scotland on Friday night.

We must play ball more effectively. Therefore, how we approach our work as a team will be slightly different, O’Neill said.

Although they had a very positive result against Scotland at Hampden Park and played very well, the teams are more of a similar level, let’s be honest.

O’Neill claimed he had made other substitutions to “protect” those who had suffered knocks after a long club season, but that the only Northern Ireland change forced at half-time was Conor Hazard.

These issues will be taken into account when selecting the Icelandic team, but the manager stated that there won’t be major adjustments for their final game before the start of the 2026 World Cup qualifying period away from Luxembourg in September.

“We’ll need to make one or two adjustments, but it’s crucial that we also use the game wisely.”