O'Neill pleased with Northern Ireland 'character'
Northern Ireland manager Michael O'Neill says he was pleased with the resilience shown by his young side in Tuesday's 1-0 win over Iceland.Isaac Price opened the scoring in a low-key first half before Brodie Spencer was sent off in the 57th minute of the Windsor Park friendly.Northern Ireland absorbed plenty of late pressure, but escaped with a win after Pierce Charles' late save to deny Isak Bergmann Johannesson before Ruairi McConville hooked the ball off the line."I'm pleased to win the game given the circumstances and going down to 10 men when we did," O'Neill told BBC Sport NI. "We showed great character and determination to defend our goal and we had to. We carried a little bit of threat as well."O'Neill admitted Northern Ireland didn't "start the game particularly well" as Iceland dominated possession the early stages. However, Price's effort lit up the first half and gave the hosts the spark they had been looking for. O'Neill feels his side will have to improve for World Cup qualifying in September, when they travel to Luxembourg and Germany, but his young side will carry plenty of momentum into their opening matches. "It took us 25 minutes to get going, we gave up a lot of possession without giving up any chances, to be honest," O'Neill added."We worked our way into the game and got the goal. With the opportunities we had, we could have scored again."The red card changes things and you have to defend, but we still carried a threat. It's a good result for us against a difficult team and a good way for us to finish the camp and the year."
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