Bosnia & Herzegovina manager Mehmed Bazdarevic has spoken for the first time on drawing Ireland in the Euro 2016 playoffs, and while he acknowledges that he has been handed a difficult draw, he is confident that his team will book their place in France next summer.
Bosnia & Herzegovina had a terrible start to the qualifying group stages but managed to turn their form around and enjoy a strong run at the tail end to claim third place in the group and a spot in the qualifying draw. Bazdarevic has expressed his opinion that the Irish are unpleasant opponents, and revealed that the opinion in his homeland is that they got the toughest draw possible.
The Irish are unpleasant but we have our advantages. We have the capacity to eliminate the Irish. Everyone is commenting that we got the most difficult opponent.
However, I think that all rivals are difficult in their own way. There are no easy ones. The only negative thing is that the rematch is away. I just wish it was the other way around
We're presuming the 'unpleasant' comment refers to us as a playoff draw, and not as a nation. Also worth noting is the view that Ireland were the toughest of the unseeded opponents to draw, as clearly our victory over Germany has laid down a marker across Europe, but Bazdarevic is correct in saying that the Bosnians have the capacity to knock us out.
Their star player is Miralem Pjanic who has been in fantastic form for AS Roma so far this season, and did this against Empoli last weekend:
But it's clear that they know the Irish won't be pushovers, and the fact that the second leg will be played at the Aviva is a big boost for the Boys in Green.
The first leg is on Friday, November 13th, and we can't wait.
via TheSun.ie
