Northern Ireland manager Michael O'Neill says it is not his job to set up the team for any "other manager to come and beat" his side.
Northern Ireland manager Michael O'Neill says it is not his job to set up the team for any "other manager to come and beat" his side.
The comment came after Germany manager Julian Nagelsmann described Northern Ireland's style as "not brilliant to watch" following his side's 3-1 win in Cologne during World Cup qualifying last month.
Nagelsman added: "It not easy to defend a lot of long balls and not easy to defend a lot of second balls."
The sides will meet again this month, with Germany coming to Belfast on Monday, 13 October, three days after Northern Ireland face Slovakia at Windsor Park, with both games live across the BBC.
Speaking on BBC NI's coverage of the game in Germany, former Northern Ireland defender Stephen Craigan said he felt the description "was a bit disrespectful".
"I don't put respectful or disrespectful on any of that," O'Neill replied when asked about Nagelsmann's comments.
"I watched the game back. I didn't really read the comments, it is something like long balls or something, but Germany played a lot of long balls too."
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Pressure on former Bayern Munich manager Nagelsmann had been growing before his side's victory in the fixture last month, the Germans having gone into the game without a win in four.
The four-time World Cup winners took an early lead in the contest but the visitors equalised through Isaac Price 10 minutes before half-time and frustration palpably grew in the RheinEnergieStadion before Nadiem Amiri and Florian Wirtz scored in the 70th and 73rd minutes of the game to secure a nervy victory.
O'Neill said he will set his team up in a similar way when they meet back in Belfast.
He added: "Look, I think managers always will say that about a Northern Ireland team, right?
"But I remember when we played Germany in the past and Joachim Low was the manager - I think he won the World Cup - he was very respectful of how we played and that's something that obviously I'll take away from it.
"The other side of it is that it's not my job to set my team up for the other manager to come and beat us. It's my job to set my team up in a way that makes it as difficult for them as possible and that's what we'll do again."
'I would expect us to score at some point'
After the two home fixtures this month, Northern Ireland's qualifying campaign for the World Cup in Canada, the USA and Mexico next summer ends in November with a trip to Slovakia before the final match, when Luxembourg travel to Belfast.
After starting with a pair of games away from home, O'Neill said that the upcoming games at Windsor Park were "certainly" the most important window of the qualifying campaign.
Northern Ireland have not lost at home since a 1-0 reverse to Slovenia in October 2023. Across that six-game run, only Switzerland have found the net at Windsor Park.
"Those are things that we have to bring to these two games," O'Neill added.
"I would think that if we had two clean sheets here in these two games, I would expect us to score at some point [and] we would have a minimum of four points.
"The emphasis is on trying to get out of the two games in as strong a position as possible for the games in November."
Category: General Sports
