Northern Ireland must conquer Andorra to make Spanish camp worthwhile: Shea Charles
Northern Ireland’s Shea Charles with Spain’s Marc Cucurella during the clash in Son
Southampton midfielder Shea Charles has insisted Northern Ireland must hit back from their heavy defeat to Spain by defeating minnows Andorra on Tuesday to make their end-of-season camp worthwhile.
The 20-year-old midfielder believes the 5-1 loss to Euro 2024-bound Spain on Saturday night was the toughest encounter Michael O’Neill’s young guns have faced since coming together.
They had entered the friendly in high spirits after beating Denmark and Scotland and drawing in Romania, but the Spanish proved to be at a different level, scoring a fistful of goals after Daniel Ballard had given the visitors an early lead.
By the time O’Neill and his squad go home on Wednesday, many of them will have been in Spain for the training camp and matches for almost two weeks, and all are keen to round off with a positive result.
“The manager spoke about that at the end of the Spanish game,” revealed Charles. “If we go there (against Andorra) and get a result and play well, the camp will have been worthwhile.
“Obviously, if we don’t, it will be disappointing. We were coming off a three-game unbeaten run before playing Spain, and now, we’ve just got to bounce back from this defeat.”
Like O’Neill, Charles was frustrated that Northern Ireland didn’t deal with deliveries from wide areas as well as they had hoped, though he acknowledged it was difficult to curtail the brilliance of the youthful Spanish team.
“Obviously, it was a very tough game, probably the toughest we’ve had as a group,” stated Charles. “Scoring the early goal was exciting, but we knew we had to maintain focus because of the team we were up against.
“We knew their threat with the crossing, and they scored off four crosses, so that was frustrating because we knew it was coming, but with the quality they have, it’s hard to stop. We had the chances to score maybe three or four, especially at the start.
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