Tanya Oxtoby: Northern Ireland are primed to deliver against Croatia

It is the best bits, those moments that might go together to compromise a highlight reel, that Tanya Oxtoby looks back on to give her confidence that Northern Ireland haven’t yet hit their peak under her management.

Over the piece, since Oxtoby became manager in September last year, there have been times when Northern Ireland have been excellent.

For example, her first win, a 1-0 success against Albania, should have been much more comfortable.

Wins away to Albania (4-0) and Montenegro (2-0) in the Nations League also didn’t bring about the goals that periods of dominance merited.

More recently in the Women’s Euro 2025 qualifiers, the second-half display against Bosnia & Herzegovina was particularly impressive and the home game — a 2-0 win in their last outing — was as close to being a culmination of all Oxtoby’s work as she could have asked for.

Even in between those games, the feeling immediately after June’s 2-1 home defeat to Portugal was that the result didn’t match the performance after taking an early lead.

Now, with the stakes higher than they have been during her tenure, Oxtoby is demanding that the performance level is cranked up too.

Even if Northern Ireland do excel in getting past Croatia in the first round of the Euro Play-Offs, they will most likely need to play even better again against either Albania or Norway in the final round and that’s why Oxtoby, who is always demanding more from her players, wants to tie up all the best bits together so far into a single performance, just when it matters most at the Stadion Varteks in Varazdin on Friday night.

“Consistency. I think we’ve had really good patches, we’ve shown what we can do, but when we put all of that together and we do it for a full 90 minutes, especially away from home, we give ourselves every opportunity with a positive result,” said Oxtoby.

“So that’s the message. We don’t rest now, we rest at the end.

“We’re right at the pointy end and we need to make sure we keep pushing.”

It will be a special night for Laura Rafferty.

Eleven years after making her senior international debut as a raw 16-year-old, she will celebrate the milestone of her 50th Northern Ireland cap.

After captaining the team in a number of games since previous skipper Marissa Callaghan decided to step down from the role, Rafferty will pass the armband over to Simone Magill, now that the most experienced player in the squad has been named as the permanent captain.

Oxtoby’s decision to omit Callaghan and Demi Vance as well as Sarah McFadden and Rachel Furness not being recalled after missing the group stage games in the spring and summer through injury, plus Nadene Caldwell missing out with an injury of her own, means that only Lauren Wade and the recalled Natalie Johnson are over the age of 30.

A pack of players who are — in theory at least — at the peak of their powers backed up by a large amount of youthful exuberance, with half the squad being 24 or under, has Oxtoby excited about what can be achieved, with the European Championship Finals in Switzerland being potentially just four games away.

“The squad is very vibrant. It’s been a great week together, really enthusiastic,” said Oxtoby.

“Everyone is really keen for the game so we can’t ask for much more.

“I feel like the squad composition is really, really positive in terms of what we are going after against Croatia.”

Oxtoby will come up against a fellow Australian in the opposition squad.

Croatia have been given the go-ahead by Fifa to select midfielder Bianca Galić, who plays for Central Coast Mariners, after confirming her qualification.

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Publish date : 2024-10-24 13:38:00

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