Martin O’Neill Happy with Recent World Cup Qualification Form

The Republic of Ireland manager Martin O’Neill is extremely pleased with the way his team managed a comfortable 3-1 win over Moldova in the latest World Cup 2018 qualification game.


After having started the campaign with a disappointing 2-2 draw against Serbia, Ireland have managed to win back-to-back games were conceding only one goal. As a result, they have managed to get their World Cup 2018 qualification campaign on track after a mediocre start. The expectations upon Ireland are much higher than in recent years after having done well at the Euro 2016.

The national team required only two minutes to score the game’s opening goal and it came through Shane Long. However, there was a period of uncertainty after Moldova managed to equalise just before half-time break throughBugaiov. James McLean managed to find an extra gear in the second half and came up with goals in the space of 10 minutes to put the away team 3-1 ahead in the match. The result is made even better by the fact that Wales could only manage a draw with Georgia at home. Martin O’Neill stated that the result that the Cardiff City stadium certainly surprised him a lot. It now means that Ireland are second in the group level on points with Serbia.

“I was delighted with the performance. Having scored early through Shane Long, we had a couple of chances to extend the lead and put the game beyond them, but didn’t happen.Instead we had a real lapse of concentration before half-time and had to put it right. It was not just Shane Duffy (at fault). We have the ball three or four yards from their touchline, the fourth official has already put two minutes up, and we lose the ball. You could mention three or four things that could have happened, but the player broke through from his own half and scored the goal,” said O’Neill.