‘There are harder groups’ – Northern Ireland boss Shiels happy with EURO draw | OneFootball

Northern Ireland head coach Kenny Shiels says that he is happy with his side’s UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 group and is relieved that The Green and White Army have avoided some other tough opponents.

Shiels’ side have been grouped with England, Norway and Austria in this evening’s UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 draw in Manchester with all three nations having faced The Green and White Army in recent times.

Northern Ireland avoided the likes of The Netherlands, France, Germany and Spain in the draw, something which Shiels admits that he is pleased about.

“There are harder groups to be honest,” Shiels said when speaking after the draw. “I think Germany would be the team that you’d want to avoid the most. It is hard to do your homework on Germany.

“I feel like these three will be really tough opponents but we have to individualise them and look at Norway.

“Before Norway, we have North Macedonia, Austria and England in the World Cup so those are the fixtures that at the forefront of my head. When we have played those games, we can look at Norway in July.”

Northern Ireland kick their UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 off against Norway, a side who defeated them 6-0 when they last met late in 2019. Shiels believes that Norway will expect to collect three points in the latest meeting but Northern Ireland will aim to neutralise their threat.

He said “Norway will be happy that their first game is against us because they will look at that as getting three points on the board with playing the lowest seed in the first game and you can’t blame them for that.

“Looking at how they feel and how they will approach it, they are ultra-professional, so big and strong physically as well, Scandinavian teams have such power and strength.

“Norway will be very professional, I think that they are a really good team, their manager is a good manager and he will have them playing against us in a way in which he feels that they can beat us. We have to try and counteract that as best we can.”

Northern Ireland kick-off their UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 campaign against Norway in Southampton on Thursday 7 July 2022.