Northern Ireland know importance of Azerbaijan clash

Northern Ireland face Group C's surprise package Azerbaijan on Friday mindful that anything other than a victory could "derail" them on the road to Russia.A quartet of countries have realistic aspirations of claiming second behind Germany in the World Cup qualification campaign and it is Azerbaijan, rather than Norway, the Czech Republic or the Northern Irish, who currently hold that spot with a three-point advantage after three games.Michael O'Neill's men can leapfrog them into that position should they emerge triumphant at Windsor Park, though they were unable to attain such a result in either of their games against Azerbaijan in the qualifiers for the 2014 World Cup, with a loss in Baku one of the darkest hours in O'Neill's tenure.A place at Euro 2016 this summer has altered the Northern Irish mentality and West Brom defender Jonny Evans admits more dropped points now would be damaging to their qualification quest."I think we've come a long way," Evans said regarding the recent meetings with Azerbaijan."Michael spoke about that, how to deal with teams like that. I think they surprised us out there with how organised they were."The expectations on us as a team have risen dramatically and I do think for Azerbaijan as well. They're sitting well in the group and I'm sure they will be pleased with how they've started."The last game against them at home, we equalised late on, (but) I think we were in control in that game. I know back then we were disappointed with the result. I think now it would be even more so and it would really derail our campaign if we were to perform like that again. It would be disappointing for us to perform like that."In terms of how we approach the game, we're in a better mindset and we've got a much clearer plan going into the game of how we're going to win."Azerbaijan are one of just four European teams, along with Germany, England and Belgium, yet to concede in the qualifiers and their start to this campaign has somewhat mirrored Northern Ireland's own route to the Euros.O'Neill believes it is still too early to consider whether a defeat would ruin their Russia chances in a tight group, yet he is wary of Azerbaijan's early momentum rolling into the new year."I don't think it's a game which will be make or break, there are still six games after that," he pointed out."Ourselves, Azerbaijan, the Czech Republic and Norway, there's very little between us, the games have shown that."Our aim is to put ourselves in a position of strength and three points will do that. We wouldn't want to be six points behind Azerbaijan. We have to stop their momentum from the opening three games and it will be nice for us to be sitting second."

Source: PA