Michael O’Neill shares excitement of players ahead of World Cup qualifying

Michael O’Neill insisted he was just as excited about the start of a new World Cup qualifying campaign as his young Northern Ireland players ahead of Thursday’s opening Group A fixture in Luxembourg.

The majority of O’Neill’s squad will be getting their first taste of a World Cup qualifying campaign in this week’s away double-header, with a trip to Cologne to face Germany following on Sunday.

O’Neill may have been here before himself, both as a player and a manager, but the prize is a tantalising one as Northern Ireland seek to reach their first World Cup finals since 1986 – two years before O’Neill’s international debut and before any of his players were born.

“You are always excited,” O’Neill said. “This is a chance to go to the World Cup and I’m no different to the players. It comes around every four years to get the opportunity to do it.”

Northern Ireland arrived more than two hours late into Luxembourg on Wednesday night after problems with their charter flight, forced to cancel their pre-match press conference and instead speak to travelling media at their hotel.

But O’Neill insisted that would have no impact on their preparations with the hard work already done in Liverpool throughout the week.

“No problem at all,” he said. “The players were fine. It’s just a bit frustrating because when you get all your work done and you leave the hotel, you want to try and get here as soon as possible and get in the hotel.

“But the fact is, we’ve had three great days training at Liverpool. We did our matchday session that we would normally do here, we did it at Liverpool today. We’ll have one session in the morning, just to re-run things and touch on a few things like set pieces again. And we’ll be ready to play.”

Since returning to the job in 2022, O’Neill has continued the major overhaul of this Northern Ireland squad that began under Ian Baraclough. With a major qualifying campaign now here, the 56-year-old sounds like a manager happy with where his young team have got to.

“I’ve felt good about my team for a while,” he said. “That’s not new. We’ve been on an upward improvement in the last two years. I think that’s reflected in the players’ club situations in a lot of cases as well.

“They’ve cemented themselves as first-team players at their clubs…I think, as a team and a squad, we’re going in the right direction. Hopefully, this campaign will give us the opportunity to show that.”

Trai Hume will again take the captain’s armband in Luxembourg, having made an impressive start to life in the Premier League with Sunderland, where he signed a new contract last month.

“I’d like to say it’s been difficult but obviously we’ve done quite well!” Hume said of the step up to the top flight, where Sunderland have won two of their opening three games.

“I’ve always wanted to test myself at the highest level so getting the chance to do that this season is a dream come true. Hopefully I’ll keep playing and keep being able to do it.”