Michael O’Neill looks ahead after Northern Ireland loss to Germany

By James Walker-Roberts

Tuesday 11 October 2016 23:37, UK

Michael O’Neill said he could not have asked for any more from his Northern Ireland players after they were beaten 2-0 by Germany on Tuesday.

Early goals from Julian Draxler and Sami Khedira saw Germany claim a comfortable victory in World Cup Qualifying Group C.

Despite the result, Northern Ireland remain firmly in contention in the group, just three points behind second-placed Azerbaijan, who they face next at home on November 11.

"If we could have taken anything it would have been a huge bonus," O'Neill told Sky Sports. "Whatever happens in this group I don't see any of the other teams coming here and winning so it's far from a disaster.

"Now we have to look forward to the next game against Azerbaijan.

"With the way the results have gone tonight, if we beat Azerbaijan we are second in the group."

O'Neill made three changes for the match in Hanover, with Lee Hodson making his first competitive international start in three years.

And the visitors restricted Germany to few clear opportunities, with goalkeeper Michael McGovern not facing the same barrage of shots as he did when Northern Ireland lost 1-0 to the same opposition at Euro 2016.

"Lee Hodson had a great night and the system contained Germany better than we did in Paris," added O'Neill.

"I couldn't have asked any more of the players. I was disappointed to go behind the way we did and lose the second goal at that point in the game because we were trying to contain them and it was difficult then.

"What we got towards the end of the first half was opportunities on the counter and we possibly could have done a bit better.

"In the second half we defended well but ran out of legs to threaten them."