Northern Ireland: Ian Baraclough says Euros are where he should be judged

An injury-time equaliser from Jonny Evans grabbed NI a 2-2 draw with Cyprus in June

Northern Ireland boss Ian Baraclough plans to continue using Nations League games to "try new things" and said he and his team should be judged on whether they qualify for Euro 2024.

Baraclough admitted he is under pressure going into their final two Nations League group games after they collected just two points from their opening four matches in June.

He said he is determined to end NI's dismal 14-game winless run in the competition but that qualification for the Euro finals is his target.

"It's a monkey we want to get off our backs, certainly," said the former Motherwell manager, whose side play Kosovo at home on 24 September before taking on Greece in Athens three days later.

"Although the Nations League games have been used - and will continue to be used - as an opportunity to try new things, give new players experience, you want to be winning games of football along the way.

"It is part of our two-year cycle heading towards the Euros and, come November 2023, hopefully we will have qualified and we will look back on those times in June as blips in a bumpy road, if you like, that we will find that we have qualified and that this is all part of it."

There was significant criticism from Northern Ireland supporters, with boos being heard during and after the final two matches of June's quadruple header, for which Baraclough was without a number of senior players.

Those opening four games began with a 1-0 home defeat by Greece and were followed by a 0-0 draw in Cyprus and a 3-2 defeat in Kosovo before needing a Jonny Evans injury-time equaliser to grab a 2-2 draw with the Cypriots back in Belfast.

Baraclough said at the time that there were a number of mitigating factors for the disappointing results and insisted he should not be judged solely on those games.

"I hope we don't just get judged on the June [international] window, I think that would be harsh on everybody," he said.

He added: "I've looked back at those games in the cold light of day as emotions are running high straight after a game.

"That Greece game, there is nothing between us. For both teams, it looked as though it was a pre-season game. I look at the pace of it compared to some of the other games we have had and I think they are false games in that respect."

'We have to take care of business'

Crystal Palace defender Kofi Balmer has been given his first senior NI call-up

Asked if he feels his job is under pressure going into the matches against Kosovo and Greece, Baraclough again played it down and instead reinforced the need to build for next year's Euro qualifiers.

"There is always pressure to win games, we put that pressure on ourselves," he continued.

"Firstly, we want to perform well and hopefully the results come from that. We know that we were underprepared and not the full squad that you would like [in June] and were coming up against teams that did have their full squads.

"We are all disappointed when we don't win games of football. There were difficult circumstances in June but hopefully we can give them [the fans] something to smile about, something to cheer about, see that there is a progression in this squad going forward.

"I think the previous two windows [before June] were upbeat and positive and that's the nature of football: you have a poor window and all of a sudden everyone ramps up the pressure."

Having dropped into the third tier of the Nations League, Northern Ireland are in danger of finishing bottom of Group C2 and facing relegation to the bottom tier.

"We don't want to, of course we don't," Baraclough said when asked if relegation was a possibility.

"But we know we need to use these Nations League games to look at players, bed players in and look at something different. We build towards Euros and World Cups but, no, we don't want to drop into a lower league so we have to make sure to take care of that."