NI ‘lacked belief’ says Davis

A dejected Steven Davis believes his side can do better Credit: Pacemaker

Northern Ireland captain Steven Davis says his side lacked belief as they went down 1-0 against Poland in their opening match.

30 years to the day since their last appearance at a major international tournament, Michael O’Neill’s men were beaten by a strong Poland side in Nice.

Seven of the eleven players who started the game were born after the 1986 World Cup.

O'Neill's men failed to get a shot on target. Credit: Pacemaker

Northern Ireland had topped their group in qualifying and were arguably the tournament’s form side, coming into the Euros off the back of a record 12-match unbeaten run.

However, they were unable to register a single shot on target in a contest which the Poles largely dominated.

The green and white army had gone into the match with heightened expectation after such a strong showing in qualifying, but Davis was downbeat about the manner of the team’s performance in their opening fixture.

"I am disappointed and frustrated," he said.

Davis added: "It is always hard to reflect straight after a game, but we know we can play better and we have to realise we are here on merit and we deserve to be playing on this stage.

"It's strange to say but we lacked belief; it felt like that at times.

"Obviously there are positives to take with our work-rate and desire as always and I think we did defend well for the majority of the game, but we know we can do a lot better in terms of with the ball."It was a tough game and Poland area very good side. They started the better of the two teams and sometimes when you don't start as fast as you would like it is difficult to get it back.

"We will obviously look at that and see if we can get a little bit more pressure on the opposition early on and cause them some more problems moving forward."

Shortly after his introduction, Washington fashioned a goalscoring chance, but was thwarted by keeper Szczesny. Credit: Pacemaker

There was disappointment too for defender Gareth McAuley, who helped contain Robert Lewandowski only to see Arkadiusz Milik fire home the winner early in the second period.

The 36-year-old's first-minute challenge on the goal-scorer was designed to establish a tone but the Poles were not deterred and seized control of the contest from the off.

McAuley now wants his countrymen to ensure they leave the Stade de Lyon after their clash with Ukraine on Thursday with no regrets.

"We possibly made them look better than they were," he added of Poland.

Northern Ireland struggled to maintain possession or to carve out opportunities. Credit: Pacemaker

"Looking back, we could have been a bit more aggressive in our approach and that's the disappointing thing," McAuley said.

"It's an eye-opener that you can't come to these tournaments and learn from it. You have to just do it, do whatever. If you're going to lose you might as well do it being positive instead of just trying to take something from it.

"They are a good side and have got some good players, but I'm not sure their whole side is world class. Yeah, I think we missed a trick in imposing ourselves on them."