Northern Ireland manager Michael O’Neill is enjoying life at Euro 2016 base camp – and the presidential feel that goes with it - so much that he does not want to go home.
The 46-year-old is relishing the intensity of preparing for three tough games in the space of ten days and getting an extra kick by using his precious free time pounding the streets around their hotel in Saint-Georges-de-Reneins, which is about 45 minutes’ drive from Lyon.
“I have been going for a jog; security is very tight so we’ve had to run with security. It has a presidential feel to it, which I have kind of enjoyed,” he smiled.
However, on a more serious note, O’Neill admitted that his side will have to improve from their opening day performance against Poland if they are to get a result against Ukraine in Lyon this evening.
Northern Ireland failed to hit the target with their only two shots in Sunday’s game in Nice and were pinned back in their own half for much of the first 45 minutes. O’Neill urged his side to use that unusually timid performance as motivation for extending their stay in France.
He said: “There’s a natural fear of ‘when do you go home?’ and I think other countries will do the same, so we have to make sure that that’s our motivating factor. I’ve no doubt it will be.
“We actually love our base and we want to stay there as long as we can. We want to make sure that the game will be played like a cup final.”
O’Neill and the squad analysed the Poland game (above) when they returned to their base hotel, with the overriding feeling that they had not done themselves justice, nor had they competed as fiercely as they had done in qualification.
They were happy with the defensive organisation and discipline, especially with how they handled Robert Lewandowski.
However, it was the lack of an attacking threat they must rectify and in O’Neill’s words “stamp our authority on the game”, all the more so in the face of what the manager believes will be a physical Ukrainian side.
He said: “What we didn’t do well that night was the ugly part of the game and that’s something that we generally always do well. So we have to make sure that we bring the ugly side to the game.”
Although before people thought that he was sending out his players to kick lumps out of Yarmolenko, Konoplyanka and Kovalenko et al, he clarified what he meant.
“When I say ugly, I don’t mean outside the rules of course. I mean just in terms of the level of competitiveness. I think what we have seen is that every game in the tournament has been extremely competitive.”
He also took issue with comments from Ukraine’s experienced midfielder Ruslan Rotan that Northern Ireland would employ “old school British tactics”.
Statistics from Ukraine’s 2-0 defeat against Germany (below) were referenced, which suggested that they were not exactly the greatest exponent of the beautiful game themselves.
“I looked at the statistics in the game and Ukraine’s possession was not particularly high against Germany (37%). I think they also played a lot of long balls in the game,” before adding with a smile, “which is very British”.
“One thing we have noticed about the Ukrainian team is that they are a physical team. If you look at the yellow and red cards that the Ukrainians have had this season, and through qualification, you will see that they are not playing a Spanish style of football. So we expect a tough game, physically, but we expect a highly technical game as well.”
The former Shamrock Rovers boss is expected to make changes to personnel and tactics but he seemed to rule out playing another striker to lighten the load on lone front man Kyle Lafferty.
Stuart Dallas, who replaced Paddy McNair at half-time against Poland, and Jamie Ward are two players who could benefit from a change in approach, but O’Neill gave few clues about the formation.
“You know we have 3-5-2 or we have played 4-3-3 or 4-5-1 in qualification,” he said.
“So whatever system we play in, we have proven that we can win games in both systems. We have also proven that we are difficult to beat, as until the other night we were 12 games unbeaten.”
In a touching gesture, Northern Ireland's players will wear black armbands in memory of Darren Rodgers. The 24-year-old from Ballymena died in Nice after the game against Poland.
For their part, Ukraine have also targeted this game as the most winnable in the group and coach Mykhaylo Fomenko expects his side to prevail after a tight and physical encounter.
Fomenko, who is often criticised for his dour demeanour and cautious approach, is set to stick with the attacking trio of wingers Andriy Yarmolenko and Yevhen Konoplyanka, and the new star of Ukrainian football, attacking midfielder Viktor Kovalenko.
The 20-year-old, who was top scorer at the last Under-20 World Cup, only made his debut in March but was named as a starter against Germany. He’s been linked with several of Europe’s top clubs and he hopes to get more opportunities to showcase his talents tonight.
Rotan, whose comments caused a stir in the build-up, could also return to the base of the midfield in a 4-2-3-1 formation.
Both Fomenko and right-back Artem Fedetskiy, who spoke at yesterday’s pre-match press conference, stressed the importance of set-pieces and this game could well be decided by a corner or free-kick.
Northern Ireland come here with just one competitive defeat since November 2014 and a real sense that they belong at the top table of international football. That view has not been diminished by the defeat to Poland.
That 12-game unbeaten run may have included a win over the Faroe Islands and a draw with Qatar, but it was well-earned and not achieved by accident. You get the sense that this Northern Ireland team has one big game in them and, with World Cup champions Germany to come after this, tonight has to be it.
