Michael O’Neill believes Northern Ireland’s performance in Monday’s 3-1 friendly defeat to France shows his side have grown more comfortable playing the best in the world away from home.

A superb hat-trick from Michael Olise gave France the win they wanted in their final match before they head off to the World Cup – and Didier Deschamps’ last in charge on French soil – but Northern Ireland made them work for it on a night when Patrick Kelly scored his first international goal.

Northern Ireland had to some extent been the willing victims in France’s big send-off in Lille, with Deschamps admitting before the game it had been hard to find a nation eager to take this fixture.

However, O’Neill saw this as another excellent opportunity to test his young side after a World Cup qualifying campaign which took them to Germany and Italy.

placeholder image — Kylian Mbappe fights for the ball with Northern Ireland's Ruairi McConville, Brodie Spencer and Shea Charles. (Photo by Sameer AL-DOUMY / AFP via Getty Images)

“It was a fantastic occasion,” O’Neill said. “It’s a brilliant arena, you saw the passion from the crowd with the anthems before the game. And these are the big stadiums at the top end of international football, that’s where you have to come and play at.

“Some of the players have that experience already, playing against Germany in qualification for the World Cup. But I think that the more experience they get of these types of stadiums the more they will feel comfortable and I thought tonight we felt comfortable.”

France had 72 per cent possession and 27 attempts at goal to Northern Ireland’s four, but that did not tell the whole story – only five of the hosts’ shots were on target as they were harried throughout by the visiting defence.

The progress Northern Ireland have made was obvious as a starting XI with an average age of 22.6 fought for every ball and put together some promising counter-attacks – Kelly’s 64th-minute goal came from a neat move as he turned in Shea Charles’ cross, temporarily silencing an enthusiastic crowd.

“In the past maybe Northern Ireland would have come here to defend and maybe we would have played a lot more long passes,” O’Neill added. “We tried to play our way out of trouble at times, we tried to play against a very aggressive press.

“We gave the ball away at times but we continued to do it. We were brave. The goalkeeper (Pierce Charles) plays a big part in that in terms of his decision-making.

“It was a great occasion, a great game for us and we’ll take a lot from it.”

Kylian Mbappe was guilty of missing a good chunk of the chances that did go begging for France.

The Real Madrid striker had a goal ruled out for offside but was otherwise wasteful in front of goal, keeping him still one shy of Olivier Giroud’s French record of 57 international goals.

But as his team prepared to fly to the United States, Deschamps insisted he was not concerned about his star man.

“You do what you want, but I’m not going to worry,” he said. “It’s true that he’s had a few opportunities, he hasn’t been efficient. He said he’s kept that efficiency for the United States, so that’s fine.”