Northern Ireland 0-1 Germany: Northern Ireland down but not out after ‘sore’ defeat
Despite the loss and disappointment, O’Neill still had time to joke with a member of the German media.
“When we looked at the statistics, ironically, I saw that Germany played the ball longer than us in the match,” he said.
Julian Nagelsmann, whose comments after the reverse match in Cologne led to O’Neill’s joke, was relieved to have survived a “tough” match.
“The second half was all about defence,” Nagelsmann told BBC Sport.
“As I said before the game it was a really tough opponent, there were a lot of long balls and they were fighting and we had to fight.
“Beating a team like Northern Ireland, fighting for the second ball and being as strong as the opposition was a good step in the right direction.”
Given that Germany has adopted automatic qualification, it is now very difficult to top Group A.
However, the possibility of second place and a guaranteed play-off is still on the agenda before the two qualifiers to be played in Slovakia in November and the last one against Luxembourg.
It may be little consolation at the moment, but if Northern Ireland miss out on the top two places, it seems a safer bet to have one of the four Nations League group winners qualifying for the play-offs, given other results across Europe.
So, this young Northern Ireland team, underachieving after a campaign against one of Europe’s giants, may be defeated but they are certainly not defeated.
