'A brilliant game for us' - Michael O’Neill hungry for more with Northern Ireland as Budapest decider looms

Northern Ireland go into their final fixture in Group B2 top of the standings, one point ahead of their hosts at the 67,000-capacity Puskas Arena after Terry Devlin’s strike secured a 1-0 win over Ukraine on Saturday night.

O’Neill’s side are already guaranteed at least a second-placed finish and a promotion play-off, but can win their group and promotion outright if they avoid defeat in Budapest.

O’Neill is set for a touchline ban on Tuesday after he was booked for his reaction to a decision from French referee Francois Letexier – his second yellow card of the campaign – but will travel to Hungary in a buoyant mood.

“It would be great to win the group,” O’Neill said. “It will be a tough, tough game but this is a brilliant game for us. It’s a great arena to play in.

“I’d imagine there will be a big crowd and it’s another test for us and we go there and we have to believe that we can take something from the game.

“We’ve kept five clean sheets, it would be nice to go through a whole campaign and not concede a goal. If we manage to do that, obviously that will be enough for us to win the group.”

Northern Ireland have already met O’Neill’s primary objective for this campaign, with a top-two finish his stated goal back in September.

With that comes a boost to their ranking ahead of next month’s Euro 2028 qualifying draw, with a pot two place now theirs, another big marker for a side with an average age close to 23 continues to develop.

“It affects us in a positive way for the Euro 2028 draw which is a big thing for us,” he said. “We’re just a team that’s continuing to grow all the time.”

It would have been a different picture had Pierce Charles not made an outstanding late save to deny Danylo Sikan, with the 21-year-old’s intervention preserving his eighth clean sheet in 10 competitive appearances for Northern Ireland.

While so much is made of Charles’ ability on the ball with his distribution, his shot-stopping is also proving to be top notch, and he has been integral to Northern Ireland’s recent improvement at the back having made the number one shirt his own.

“He’s a goalkeeper with great self-belief,” O’Neill said. “He has a real awareness, I think, in terms of how to work as part of a team.

“He’s very much an integral part of the team. You see the amount of time the defenders are comfortable with him having the ball, they’re comfortable with giving the ball to him.

“I do think he makes things easier for the centre-backs, for the back three, because he does give them that confidence.

“He always gives them a solution, which I think is really, really important…But when we needed him to make a big save, he made it. When we needed him in Georgia to save a penalty, he saved it.

“So I think we’re seeing a goalkeeper that’s just going to continue to grow and grow.”