Martin Reim hoping home comforts help as Estonia host Northern Ireland

Posted Saturday, June 08, 2019 by PA

Estonia manager Martin Reim is hoping home comforts can help his side in Saturday’s Euro 2020 qualifier against Northern Ireland but knows recent history is against them.

The two sides will meet at the A. Le Coq Arena in Tallinn on Saturday night with Reim’s men looking to avenge a 2-0 defeat to Michael O’Neill’s side in Belfast in March.

But though Estonia will be at home, they are without a win in their last five matches played in Tallinn, drawing one and losing four.

No major tactical innovations are expected on Saturday night, but Reim hopes playing in front of a home crowd can help, regardless of that record.

“We are playing at home now,” he said. “We always hope to play much better in our home games than we do away.

“The last game was two months ago and I hope that the players are in better shape than in Belfast.”

While Northern Ireland have been using training camps in Manchester and Austria to boost their fitness – with many players not having played since the end of the regular Football League season in early May – Estonia have a different balance to strike.

Those members of Reim’s squad based in the domestic league are in the middle of their campaign, while many of the overseas-based players are in their off-season.

“In our team the home league is ongoing but half the team is playing outside this and their season is over,” Reim said.

“It is maybe even hard to mix this, but I think these are all professional players and it does not matter so much when they are playing.”

The defeat to Northern Ireland was Estonia’s only Euro 2020 qualifier so far, and Reim will have all of his focus on Saturday’s re-match, a much more winnable fixture than Tuesday’s trip to face Germany in Mainz.

While Estonia have struggled at home, O’Neill is confident Northern Ireland can end their away day blues as they continue their push to qualify for Euro 2020.

Northern Ireland face Estonia on Saturday in Tallinn and Belarus in Borisov on Monday in two games which are virtually must-win before they take on Holland and Germany in Group C later in the year.

O’Neill’s side are without a win on the road since beating San Marino in September 2017, a run of seven games.

But O’Neill has previously played down the importance of recent away defeats in friendlies and the Nations League, and pointed instead to better results across both the run to the Euro 2016 finals and the 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign.

“Like Estonia, we’re a small nation and we often find it difficult away from home,” said O’Neill, whose side will be roared on by 1,100 travelling fans in Tallinn.

“If you look at the last two (qualifying) campaigns our away record is quite strong – we had maybe 10 points in the campaign for Euro 2016 and about seven for the World Cup, so we are much better equipped to play away from home than we have been in the past.

“I know historically our away record is something different but this is a different group of players and Steven (Davis) would verify that there is a confidence when we go away from home now that we are capable of getting a result.”

Delivering on that potential looks like a minimum requirement for Northern Ireland as they look to force their way into the top two in the group come November.

Victories over Estonia and Belarus in March give them a chance of going into their games against Holland and Germany with 12 points in the bank if they can repeat the trick this weekend, making qualification a much more realistic prospect.

“We believe if we can get similar results as we had in the first round of fixtures, we essentially go into a group of three and it’s almost like a knockout scenario in the sense of a two-legged affair with the Netherlands and Germany,” O’Neill said.

“That in itself is a huge task, but it’s a task we would like to meet head on.”