Michael O'Neill: NI manager says he is 'not thinking about qualification' for Euro 2024
- Published
Northern Ireland boss Michael O'Neill says late VAR call in Denmark defeat 'ridiculous'
Northern Ireland manager Michael O'Neill said he was not thinking about qualification for Euro 2024, even before his injury-hit side's cruel 1-0 defeat by Denmark in Copenhagen.
Northern Ireland were denied a draw against the group's top seeds when teenage substitute Callum Marshall's debut goal in injury-time was disallowed after a lengthy VAR check.
O'Neill was missing up to 10 regular players, with Craig Cathcart ruled out with injury on the morning of the game.
"We'd six Under-21s on the pitch tonight," O'Neill said when asked if the defeat puts pressure on them for Monday night's visit of Kazakhstan to Belfast.
"We're not thinking about qualification. We're thinking about putting points on the board. We have 10 senior players out injured.
"We're not in that place of the teams we're playing against, the likes of Denmark. We're building a team here that's dealing with a difficult situation with the number of senior players we've lost.
"We're not in there before the game talking about qualification, we're talking about a level of performance, to give a really good account of ourselves, which we did.
"Obviously if we can take points, which we nearly did tonight, we'd be delighted but we're not talking in that vain at the moment."
'We have to be realistic'
'I'm not a big fan of VAR' - NI's Marshall after late goal ruled out
Cathcart's withdrawal - due to a back spasm which O'Neill hopes he will have recovered from to face Kazakhstan - saw him join a list of senior players unavailable for this qualifier double-header that included captain Steven Davis, Stuart Dallas, Corry Evans, Josh Magennis and Conor Washington.
The defeat leaves Northern Ireland still in fifth position in Group H, having won their opening game away to San Marino in March before following that up with a disappointing home defeat by Finland.
It is a group that Northern Ireland supporters felt offered hope of qualification, particularly after the re-appointment of O'Neill for a second spell in December - but the manager feels the injury blows the squad have suffered must be taken into consideration.
Isaac Price, 19, and 21-year-old Trai Hume were handed their first Northern Ireland starts as an inexperienced squad took on a Denmark side that included players such as Manchester United's Christian Eriksen and Andreas Christensen of Barcelona.
"You know the players who are missing and you know the players we're asking to play at this moment in time," O'Neill continued.
"They're not first-team players at their respective clubs on a regular basis and we're playing against established international players who play at top clubs in Europe.
"We have to be realistic with the level we can compete at on a consistent basis. But the experience the players will have from nights like this, this is a brilliant place to play football, a brilliant stadium, brilliant home support, fantastic pitch. They will be better at the start of what is an international journey for a lot of these players.
"A number of these players will have long and distinguished international careers. It's nights like these they will really benefit from."
'We had two penalty claims'
Marshall scored in the Youth Cup final for West Ham
Eighteen-year-old West Ham striker Marshall had come off the bench for his Northern Ireland debut, after what was his first call-up to the senior squad, when he volleyed home a Jonny Evans flick-on deep into injury time.
A VAR check ensued, however, and, after an almost five-minute wait, the goal was disallowed as Evans was deemed to have been marginally offside as the original free-kick into the box was struck.
O'Neill made his feelings on the disallowed goal clear, describing the decision as "a joke", but also pointed to what he felt should have been two penalties for Northern Ireland.
"The disappointing thing for me was we had a strong penalty claim on Jordan Thompson who goes down into the box with Christian Eriksen and also a penalty claim on Callum Marshall.
"I think the officials took a total of 30 seconds to look at both decisions, and we had a total of five minutes to look at finding a reason to disallow our goal.
"And if it takes that long to make that decision, surely in the spirit of the game we would give that to the attacking team. Is that not what really the rule was all about, that the attacking team should have the advantage? For me, it's a very poor decision."
However, asked if he can use such a crushing feeling as motivation for getting a result against Kazakhstan on Monday night, O'Neill said that is not required.
"We don't need that to turn around our team to be ready to play on Monday night," he added.
"We'll be playing in front of a vociferous crowd at home who will be proud of how we played tonight. We're angry and we're upset but we don't need that to motivate us to play."