Michael O’Neill wants ‘badly behaved guests’ Northern Ireland to spoil France send-off
Michael O’Neill wants his Northern Ireland side to be “badly behaved guests” and disrupt France’s final World Cup preparations on Monday night.
Didier Deschamps’ star-studded side go into this summer’s showpiece as one of the favourites to lift the trophy, and their friendly against O’Neill’s men in Lille is intended as the big send-off.
But Northern Ireland have their own agenda against Kylian Mbappe, Ousmane Dembele et al as O’Neill gives his young squad yet another huge test as part of preparations for the Nations League campaign.
“It’s their party and it’s nice to be invited,” O’Neill said. “You probably have to be a badly behaved guest and that’s what we have to aspire to be in terms of can we make the game difficult for France.
“But I don’t really think we’ve ever even mentioned that to the players. It’s more about the level of the opposition, the quality they have and an opportunity for us to measure ourselves individually and collectively as a team is the most important thing for us.”
France have already had one party spoiled this week as Amad Diallo’s 84th-minute winner saw Ivory Coast come from behind to win 2-1 in Nantes on Thursday.
O’Neill said he did not believe defeat would impact France’s approach.
“I don’t think there’s pressure on France,” he said. “This is part of their preparation.
“What we have to do is show resilience, show belief, and show the ability which we maybe haven’t done in certain games where we can still hurt the opposition despite maybe having limited opportunities, limited possession.
“That’s probably the biggest thing we still need to work on as a team.”
Monday promises to be a very different game to Thursday’s 1-0 friendly win over Guinea in Cadiz, Spain, where Northern Ireland hung on despite the 72nd-minute dismissal of goalscorer Tom Atcheson.
Teenagers Kieran Morrison and Ceadach O’Neill both made their debuts in that game, and boss O’Neill insisted he would have no problem putting either player – or fellow youngster Braiden Graham – on against France.
“What have we got to lose by putting a young player on the pitch in this situation?” O’Neill said. “Age is not a factor for me. The key is keep the team as strong as possible for as long as possible.
“We’ll need a lot of energy in the game, there’s no doubt about that. But everyone picked here as part of our squad is picked to be ready and available.”
Northern Ireland’s players came into this camp still talking about how much it hurt in March to fall short in the World Cup qualifying play-offs, where hopes were ended in the 2-0 loss to Italy.
That pain will be felt again on Monday as they watch another team get their big sendoff.
“We’re disappointed that we couldn’t get it over the line but I think March is something we should learn from,” captain Trai Hume said. “If we do get ourselves the opportunity in the future, we can go into it better prepared.”