O’Neill: No one wants to play us

Northern Ireland manager Michael O’Neill says his team’s style and desire will ensure no nation at Euro 2016 will relish taking them on.

Northern Ireland are appearing in a major tournament for the first time in 30 years but have been handed a tricky group alongside world champions Germany, Poland and Ukraine.

Despite the scale of task ahead of his players, O’Neill says he fully believes they are capable of getting past the group stage and he does not anticipate any opposition relishing facing his troops.

“I’m not expecting to be in the tournament on July 10 (the date of the final), but equally, I’m hoping I’m not going home on June 23 (the day after the group stage ends).

We’re the type of country no one wants to play,” O’Neill said. O’Neill’s squad does not include any stars but they showed how far their work ethic can take them by topping their qualifying group ahead of Romania and Hungary.

They were beaten just once in 10 games and conceded only eight goals on their journey to Euro 2016. According to O’Neill, they will use Leicester City’s Premier League triumph as motivation ahead of the Euros, and he believes any pressure to win is firmly on their opponents.

“The expectation of Ukraine and Poland is that they should beat us, a tiny country,” he said. “Leicester are what we have to look to. We look at teams like Atletico Madrid when they won the league and almost won the Champions League.

They were difficult to beat, built off being a threat at set-pieces. We reinforced that to the players.” Northern Ireland are 5.50 to win their opening game against Poland on June 12 and are 4.00 to keep a clean sheet.