Michael O’Neill admitted Northern Ireland’s Euro 2024 hopes are over after Thursday’s 4-2 qualifying defeat to Slovenia left them adrift towards the bottom of Group H.
A fourth straight defeat left a six-point gap between Sunday’s opponents Kazakhstan in fourth place and Northern Ireland in fifth, with nine points separating them from leaders Finland.
Although not mathematically over, both the size of the deficit and the number of teams involved make it difficult to see a path to qualification.
“We’ve just got to finish as high as possible,” O’Neill said. “Qualification now, I think if we won all five games (remaining) it wouldn’t be enough. I’m not going to sit here and say ‘While it’s mathematically possible…’ and things like that.
“We’re trying to develop a team here. It’s a young team, a team that’s ravaged by injuries. Our chance in this group probably was to get momentum in the early part and we didn’t do that unfortunately.
“Now we’ve got to make sure we finish the group strong and so we can carry that forward for the preparations for the next tournament.”
Northern Ireland played positively, enjoying more possession and more chances than Slovenia, but left the door open at the back for Andraz Sporar and Benjamin Sesko to exploit.
“I thought Trai Hume, Shea Charles were excellent, Isaac Price getting his first goal, they’re all real positives,” O’Neill said. “That’s three young players who could all have played for the under-21s. Some of the senior boys put in a good performance as well – George Saville had a very good game as well.
“We will look at the game and some of things we did that were poor in the game but we’ll focus as well on a lot of things we did well and we’ll be ready to give it a go again on Sunday night.”
Northern Ireland’s injury headache got worse, with Ciaron Brown forced off after being hurt in the build-up to Slovenia’s second goal before his replacement, Craig Cathcart, hobbled off late on.
“Ciaron will be an extreme doubt (for Sunday), he’s twisted his ankle which led to the second goal, a deflected goal, so there was a little bit of misfortune for us there on a couple of counts,” O’Neill said.
“Craig, his groin was tight so we’ll see how he reacts. We’ve got a long flight to Astana to deal with and we’ll just have to assess the players probably before we go.”
Northern Ireland’s qualifying campaign has been all downhill since the opening win over San Marino in March, with the relentless run of injuries depriving O’Neill of some of his most effective dressing room leaders.
Asked how he could pick his side up after this latest setback, O’Neill said: “I don’t think that will be difficult. There’s a sense of realism in the dressing room about where we are as a group at the minute.
“I think the bigger concern is if you going into the games feeling you’re inferior to the opposition. We don’t feel that in this group. The results have been disappointing for us obviously. It’s been well documented about the players that are unavailable to us.
“I think this group of players will be clearly a lot better of the experience of what they’re dealing with at the minute. For the younger ones in particular playing two games in the space of three days, both away from home, for many of them it’s their first experience of that.
“That’s the nature of international football and trying to qualify. We feel we due more points than the points that we have but we have to accept where we are at this minute in time and make sure that we finish as strongly as we can in the group.”
Postecoglou: Spurs have a confidence problem to overcome
Ange Postecoglou says that Tottenham need to "overcome" their low confidence after suffering a 4-2 defeat to Liverpool on Sunday.
Spurs slipped to their fourth consecutive Premier League defeat, being left to bemoan their slow start as they found themselves 4-0 down by the hour mark thanks to goals from Mohamed Salah, Andrew Robertson, Cody Gakpo and Harvey Elliott.
Richarlison came off the bench to salvage some pride for Spurs, scoring one before setting up Son Heung-min for a goal on his 300th Premier League appearance.
Spurs had the opportunity to cut the gap to the top four after Aston Villa’s defeat to Brighton, but they remain seven points off a Champions League spot.
Postecoglou’s side still have a game in hand over the Villans, though he was sure that Spurs would be able to put their recent poor run behind them.
Asked if Spurs had a confidence problem, Postecoglou told Sky Sports: "Maybe in the front third there is.
"It probably is a bit of a lack of confidence, but again, that's something the guys have to work through.
"You have to find a way to overcome that because, ultimately, if you don't put pressure on the opposition in the front third after you've worked your way up there, they're going to get comfortable with their position."
Spurs have won just one of their last nine Premier League away games, failing to win any of the last five.
Despite that run extending at Anfield, Postecoglou highlighted what he thought was an improvement on their recent performances.
He continued: "Obviously a hugely disappointing outcome for us but at least we were more like ourselves today in terms of our football.
"Our last two away games at Newcastle and Chelsea, apart from the results which weren't great either, we just didn't try and play our football.
"I thought today, even in the first half, some of our football, our pressing was back to where it should be."
Roma 1-1 Juventus: Juve miss chance to close gap to second after draw with Roma
Juventus were held to a 1-1 draw at Roma on Sunday, missing the chance to close in on Milan in second place in Serie A.
Roma took the lead after 15 minutes when Romelu Lukaku found himself in the perfect position to tap in the rebound from a Bryan Cristante shot.
Bremer levelled with a header for Juventus just after the half-hour mark when Federico Chiesa picked him out inside the box from a corner.
Both sides had chances to find a winner in the final minutes, with Roma keeper Mile Svilar making a fingertip save to push Manuel Locatelli's volley over the bar.
Third-placed Juventus have 66 points, five fewer than Milan, who drew 3-3 with Genoa earlier on Sunday. Roma are fifth with 60 points.
Data Debrief: Leading from the back
Since scoring his first Serie A goal in the 2019-20 season, Bremer is the defender with the most headed goals in the Big-5 European leagues, netting 13 in total. Each of his last seven goals have been headers.
His goal was enough to earn Juventus a point today, but it means that they have drawn each of their last four in the competition - a first since February-March 2012 under Antonio Conte.
Chelsea 8-0 Bristol City: Blues rout hands Hayes perfect home send off
Guro Reiten starred as Chelsea thrashed already-relegated Bristol City 8-0 to keep their title hopes alive in the Women's Super League on Sunday.
The Norwegian scored four goals, netting the opener from the penalty spot to get Emma Hayes' last home game in charge off to the best start.
She scored the other three in the second half in just over 20 minutes, while teeing up Agnes Beever-Jones for the seventh goal with just two minutes left.
Beever-Jones got two, with Sjoeke Nusken and Niamh Charles also adding to the scoreline to eradicate the goal-difference advantage that Manchester City, who lost to Arsenal earlier on Sunday, had over them.
Chelsea move to within three points of the Citizens, with a game in hand over them, remaining in the fight to lift their fifth-consecutive league title.
Data Debrief:
Chelsea have scored eight goals in a game for the first time since December 2022 against Leicester City, a match they also won 8-0.
The Blues have scored in their last six games in the WSL, though it does not come close to their longest run of games with a goal in the competition - a run of 20 from April 2023 to February 2024.
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