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Steven Crawford

Ali McCann relishing the chance to go head-to-head with Denmark star man

Ali McCann is relishing the opportunity of going head-to-head with one of Denmark's star men in the Parken Stadium on Friday evening.

Midfielder McCann will be out to stifle Christian Eriksen as Northern Ireland bid to add to the frustrations of the Group H favourites and keep their own Euro 2024 qualification hopes alive.

"He’s quality," McCann said when asked about the Manchester United midfielder.

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"You’ve seen it in the Premier League for years and for Denmark for years.

"You want to play these players don’t you because that’s the type of game you play football for. I’ll be looking forward to it.

"It’s not just him, they have a squad full of quality. We will go there with a game plan and if we get it right we can definitely come away with something.

“You just have got to get close to him, because if you give him time and space to pick passes then he’ll be able to cut you open.

"I’m sure we’ll need to be aggressive. He won’t like it if we get close to him and put a foot in, so that’ll be part of it."

Despite only being 23 McCann is now one of the more experienced heads in the squad with so many senior players unavailable due to injury.

The Preston North End man accepts it is not ideal to be without the likes of Steven Davis, Stuart Dallas and Corry Evans, but he has been impressed with the young players coming through.

"Some of us lads who have been in squads were saying the quality of the young lads in the training camps was brilliant," said McCann.

"The amount of good technical players we have coming through is class to be fair. It bodes well going forward.

“I’m sort of in that middle group now, even though it doesn’t seem that long ago I came in and I was the youngest.

“But I’ve loved every minute of it. It’s great seeing the younger lads coming through and seeing the quality we’ve got.

"Obviously it is not great with all those names being injured but that happens in football sometimes and it gives an opportunity for other people to step up.

"If I do manage to play on Friday and Monday I’ll be giving it my all to get a result for the lads."

This is McCann's first time working under Michael O'Neill and he has been impressed with what he has seen so far.

“I’ve noticed his attention to detail massively," he said.

"All of the sessions we’ve done have had a purpose, so that bodes well going forward and if we can get it right going into Friday, we give ourselves a big chance."

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