Martin O’Neill said he was delighted his Republic of Ireland side have home advantage in the second leg of the Euro 2016 play-off against Bosnia-Herzegovina next month. But the manager warned that his team will first need to handle a testing trip to Zenica without the suspended John O’Shea and Jonathan Walters before thinking about a trip to France next summer.
O’Neill vowed to “really go for it” against Bosnia, who reached the play-offs after finishing behind Belgium and Wales in Group B. They recovered from defeats by Cyprus and Israel early in the campaign to win five of their last six qualifiers, including victories over Wales and Cyprus in the final set of games.
The former Leicester City and Celtic manager says the key is to keep the tie alive on Friday 13 November before the return in Dublin the following Monday.
“I’m delighted, I would have taken that, but we have to make sure we’re still in it and have something to play for in the second game,” O’Neill said after Sunday morning’s draw in Nyon.
“There’s no point in thinking that we hold an advantage in Dublin with the crowd behind us if we don’t go and perform in the first game. That would be really important. Bosnia, by that time, will probably have Edin Dzeko back from injury.”
The former Manchester City striker scored seven times in qualifying and in his absence Mehmed Bazdarevic’s team often lack a spark in attack. Dzeko’s Roma team-mate Miralem Pjanic is an impressive figure in midfield and the Chelsea goalkeeper Asmir Begovic is one of only two Premier League-based individuals in a squad made up mostly of Bundesliga and Serie A players. The other, Everton’s Muhamed Besic, will also miss the first leg due to suspension.
“They have some really decent players,” O’Neill said. “I watched their game against Cyprus and Bosnia done great to win that. They got a goal in front, went behind 2-1 and came back to win, so they have some very fine players. But we’re delighted to be in and, listen, we have to go for it, really go for it. We have a chance. I’ll do a lot more delving into their group.”
O’Neill was relieved to avoid Ukraine, who will face Slovenia, and Sweden, who meet their neighbours Denmark having suffered play-off heartache against Portugal before the last World Cup. Norway versus Hungary – absent from a major tournament since the 1986 World Cup in Mexico – completed the draw.
Getting a ticket for the match in Bosnia is likely to prove tricky for Ireland supporters. Some had asked the Football Association of Ireland before the draw to engage with them about ticket distribution after a furore surrounding the allocation for last year’s qualifier away to Scotland ended with protests from supporters directed at the FAI chief executive, John Delaney. Bosnia’s stadium in Zenica holds 15,600 and visiting supporters are likely to receive only around 750 tickets – as per Wales’s recent visit.
The teams have met once, Ireland winning a 2012 friendly in Dublin courtesy of a Shane Long header. Long, Ireland’s match-winner against Germany, is in a race to be fit for the games having suffered an ankle ligament injury in the defeat by Poland this month.
