Michael O'Neill convinced Northern Ireland won't choke en route to Euro 2016

Chris Brunt managed to avoid picking up his second yellow card against the Faroe Islands

MICHAEL O'NEILL is convinced Northern Ireland will not suffer stage fright as they bid to reach a first major tournament in 30 years.

 

O'Neill's side were ranked among the fifth seeds for Euro 2016 but go into tonight's match against Hungary top of Group F and three points away from booking their trip to France.

They have never been to a European Championship before and last appeared at the World Cup in 1986, but expectations reached fever pitch after a 3-1 success in the Faroe Islands on Friday.

And O'Neill is confident his squad are ready to stand tall and get the job done

 

"Obviously we're confident, we've played seven games, won five and drawn one," he said. "We've got all the characteristics to see this game through and see this campaign through.

"It's nice to go into the game top of the group, that's a nice positon to be in. I don't think there's a nervousness in the players, there's an excitement, a really strong belief.

"They know what they're good at as a team and they execute it, so expect to see a level of performance similar to what we've had in the campaign.

"Their focus has been tremendous. As soon as they came off the pitch on Friday their minds turned to this game.

"Our objective is to finish the job but if we don't do that here we'll have other opportunities; our destiny remains very much in our hands."

 

O'Neill expects to have a full squad to pick from, having avoided any new niggles in the Faroes, while Chris Brunt and Kyle Lafferty managed to avoid picking up their second yellow cards of the campaign.

There had been an outside chance of Nottingham Forest's Jamie Ward linking up with the squad in Belfast but his hamstring injury means he has not recovered sufficiently.

It would be fitting if Northern Ireland sealed qualification against Hungary, having kicked off their impressive sequence of results with a 2-1 win in Budapest last September.

"We've already beaten Hungary once and that was the start of it for us, but we recognise it's possibly a different Hungarian team we're facing this time," he said.

"They have a new coach, their third in this campaign, and we expect a very tough game."

Northern Ireland v Hungary, 7.45pm. TV: Sky Sports 5.