Luxembourg v Northern Ireland: ‘We won’t play for a draw, we want to win’

Northern Ireland go into the game with two impressive wins in Belfast, with a 5-0 victory over Bulgaria followed by a 2-0 win over Belarus.

Not only will finishing top of the group secure promotion, it will also keep open the possibility of a back door route into the World Cup play-offs.

Charles said he thought it was a “very good performance” against Belarus, and winning breeds confidence for a youthful Northern Ireland squad, who had an average age of just 22.6 in their starting team on Friday.

“It’s important to win games at a young age as well,” said midfielder Charles, who himself is just 21.

“We have the confidence to go into the next game and to go and do it away from home will be really good for us.”

Luxembourg are bottom of the group with two points from their five matches, although O’Neill warned they are a better side than their results suggest.

That is echoed by Charles, who was impressed when they visited Windsor Park in September for a game which ended in a 2-0 win for Northern Ireland.

“They are a lot better than what they are doing. They like to play good football and build up from the back.

“They have some good individual players as well. We’re expecting a tough game and when they were in Belfast they did cause us some problems.

“The main aim is to go and win the group and finish off strongly.”