Michael O’Neill is determined not to look too far ahead as his Northern Ireland side aim to secure promotion to the top tier of the Nations League this week.

Northern Ireland go into Saturday’s match against Ukraine top of Group B2, with their destiny in their own hands ahead of a potential group decider away to Hungary in Budapest on Tuesday.

O’Neill has not shied away from talking about the “massive” opportunity in front of his young side, and on Friday spoke further about the development his players could benefit from if they were to face the likes of France, Spain and England on a regular basis in League A.

But as more questions came about what life might look like in the top flight, O’Neill moved to shut it down.

placeholder image — Northern Ireland’s final training session in Belfast before facing Ukraine on Saturday across the UEFA Nations League return. (Photo by Pacemaker Press)

“We’re getting ahead of ourselves I think, if I’m honest,” O’Neill said. “Our focus is on the game tomorrow night and trying to give ourselves the best chance going into the last game against Hungary, that we put ourselves in the strongest position to get promoted.”

It is a message that has resonated with Ruairi McConville, the 21-year-old Norwich defender who has stepped up massively in this campaign.

“The worst thing we can do is think we’re already there and that we’re going to be playing these teams,” McConville said.

“We expect a tough game, we expect good opposition who will come wanting a bit of revenge after the last game, so we’ll be ready.”

With the position Northern Ireland have put themselves in, anything short of a top-two finish and at least a play-off place would be hugely disappointing – they start the week four points ahead of third-placed Ukraine.

But O’Neill has his eyes on the bigger picture – a decade on from Euro 2016 the primary goal is to return to a major tournament.

“I don’t think they’ll get carried away,” he added of his players. “I think they know they’ve got an opportunity to do something really positive in this campaign. But at the end of the day, this won’t take us to a major tournament and that’s where we want to be.”

Northern Ireland beat Ukraine 3-0 in Slovakia last month, with Ciaron Brown the perhaps unlikely hero with a brace.

But the disappointment in the window was Northern Ireland’s inability to win at home as both matches in Belfast finished 0-0 against Hungary and Georgia.

Reflecting on the Georgia draw, O’Neill admitted his players had looked too amped up at home, too eager to win it early – a key lesson given the attention now surrounding Saturday.

“We showed the players in detail where we felt we could have done better, where the game could have gone away from us a little bit, and a bit of that was controlling emotions,” he said.

“Quite quickly after half-time we’re trying to win the game straight away and at the same time maybe exposing ourselves a little bit. But that comes with a little bit of maturity as well.

“The team is very young. It’s natural they’re going to react to the crowd. We showed them that and I think they’ll learn quickly.”