Rachel Furness: the “tactically cunning” midfielder returns to Northern Ireland

The defender Rachel Dugdale, who started 1-1 on Friday evening with Romania in Bucharest, retired from the team and was replaced by the central defender of Cliftonville Kelsie Burrows.

“We managed the disease in the field and we did really well to contain it, but unfortunately Duggie and Megan were victims of it,” added Oxtoby.

Northern Ireland is in second place in group B1 after three games following a loss against Poland, a late victory over the Bosnia-Herzegovina and who draws with Romania.

Oxtoby admitted that his team is focusing on ending strongly with their hopes for promoting fading, starting with a victory against Romania.

“Now we are focusing on a count of points rather than on a position in the group and if we hit that we will end up where we have to.

“We must offer a complete performance against a truly expert Romania team and if we do it, we have all the chances of obtaining a result”.

The Australian manager knows that his team will have to produce a better display in both boxes compared to Bucharest if they have to come away with all three points to Belfast.

Danielle Maxwell opened the score for Ni with a superb strike, but Romania drew when Mihaela Ciolacu capitalized a defensive error.

Northern Ireland was unable to transform their possession into clear possibilities and Romania almost won the game in arrest time when Ciolacu hit the crossbar.

“I think that on Friday evening we had a positive base that comes away with a point, but really excited to have returned here (to Windsor Park) and we hope that the crowd can bring the noise,” continued Oxtoby.

“We have to eliminate those (defensive) errors and go to the other side, we have to finish the teams when we are in the rise.”