PRAISE

Martin O’Neill, who was recently appointed as the new Republic of Ireland manager to replace Giovanni Trapattoni, has praised the performance of his players in the recent 0-0 draw with Poland. Even though this was an away match, Ireland managed to come away with a positive result according to O’Neill. The former Sunderland manager has joined hands with Roy Keane to transform the fortunes of Ireland, who have been criticised a lot in recent years. They reached the Euro 2012 under Trapattoni, but failed to win even a single match at this tournament.

O’Neill will be handed the task of getting the team to Euro 2016 after the team failed to reach the World Cup 2014. The team was recently involved in a friendly match against Poland. They were coming into the match on the back of a convincing 3-0 win over Latvia at home. This was the first match of O’Neill, which saw the team play with a spirited attitude and scored goals. However, they could not open the scoring against Poland, but the manager was happy with the display of his players by saying that it was a resilient performance.

“We are away from home and it’s a good result in that sense. We can improve on lots of things and the players think that themselves. It was tough going at times – there were very few chances but we saw it through. I won’t see them for some time now and I’ll have withdrawal symptoms. I’m not so sure it will be the same for the players,” said O’Neill.

Martin O’Neill is known for his spells at Aston Villa and Celtic.

Republic of Ireland will next face Serbia in a friendly match in March. They could schedule friendly matches in the summer against teams that did not qualify for the World Cup.