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O'Neill: Northern Ireland 'can be competitive'

While admitting Germany were the side he least wanted to face, Michael O'Neill is confident Northern Ireland can make a splash in Group C alongside Ukraine and Poland.

Kyle Lafferty was Northern Ireland's qualifying top scorer
Kyle Lafferty was Northern Ireland's qualifying top scorer ©Getty Images

World champions Germany represent a stern test for debutants Northern Ireland, though manager Michael O'Neill remains confident of his side's Group C prospects, predicting the first game against Poland will be crucial.

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Michael O'Neill, Northern Ireland manager
Germany were the team from Pot 1 that we wanted the least, if I'm honest. But having drawn them, I felt the big thing was to avoid possibly Italy out of Pot 2, which we managed to do.

While it's a tough group, I believe it's a group that we can be competitive in. We'll have difficult games against Poland and Ukraine, but the fact those are the first two games out of the three maybe helps us a little bit.

We came through a tough group in qualification. We won the group and we were top goalscorers in our group, so that gives us a lot of belief and a lot of heart.

We'll put everything in, in terms of our preparation, geared to that opening game against Poland, because I think that if we can manage to take something out of that, then it sets us up for what happens in the rest of the campaign.

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