Northern Ireland manager Michael O’Neill has outlined the importance of achieving promotion from the third tier of the Nations League for the development of his squad.
O’Neill’s side head Group C3 of the competition ahead of the final two matches of their Nations League campaign, having won two and drawn one of their four games to date.
O’Neill sees promotion to League B as an important step ahead of their bid to qualify for the 2026 World Cup.
“The situation is in our hands. We want to progress and get to the next level of Nations League football,” explained the NI boss.
“It has given us a chance to put a lot of young players in the team and maybe not challenge them at the top, top level of international football, which is difficult. They have had a chance to have positive experiences, gain confidence and get a consistent way of playing.
“If we were to gain promotion it would give us the next tier of international football and those are the teams you have to finish ahead of if you’re going to qualify [for tournament finals].”
The Northern Ireland manager is pleased that uncertainty over whether Belarus would be granted visas for the game to be played in Belfast was allayed last week.
“It was difficult to prepare,” he admitted.
“Obviously for the [Irish Football] Association it’s difficult with that uncertainty. You want to play at home, financially it would have been difficult for us to lose out.
“Playing in an empty stadium or even with a limited number of our fans, who would have been able to travel, wouldn’t have been ideal.
“It has been a little bit tricky. We’ve based ourselves in Manchester for a number of the games and had really good training camps so we’ll base ourselves in Belfast from Sunday night.”
Following an emphatic 5-0 win over Bulgaria at Windsor Park last time out, all tickets have already been sold for the Friday 15 November match against Belarus, who are second in the group with six points from three games.
O’Neill added: “The good thing is there is a lot of positivity around the team at this time and it’s good for us to be in Northern Ireland when there is that positivity and hopefully that feeds through to the boys as well.”