Michael O’Neill believes Northern Ireland have everything to play for in the upcoming World Cup qualifiers as Germany are not nailed on to win Group A.

The international manager announced his squad to face Luxembourg and Germany next month, with Slovakia making up the quartet in the group.

O’Neill faces a sweat on the fitness of Conor Bradley and Pierce Charles before playing Luxembourg on September 4 in the Grand Duchy.

With Conor Hazard also crocked Bailey Peacock-Farrell will start in goals unless Charles makes a recovery in time.

O’Neill professed himself to be delighted with the players he has available and insists Northern Ireland, Luxembourg and Slovakia are not playing for second place behind Germany.

“No, you can’t take that attitude into the tournament”, said the former Stoke City boss.

“Obviously they are strong favourites to win the group, as they would be in any group they play in, let’s be honest.

“People say ‘oh they’re not the Germany team that we played in the past’, but the Germany team we played in the past were the World Champions, so it’s a high bar.

“They’ve got some younger players, they’re maybe going through a transitional phase but their players still play at the top level of the game.

“In international football, the challenge is always who you get from Pot One.

“If we’re honest, would we rather not get Germany? Of course.

“There were other countries in Pot One that we possibly would have preferred to have but the draw is the draw.

“We have to maximise what we take in the games against Luxembourg and Slovakia and make sure we are as competitive as possible against Germany and hopefully take something from those games as well.

“Football has a way of throwing up surprises. We recognise the fixtures and we know we’ll need to take points.

“When you play the top nations, the Pot One nations – particularly away from home – anything you can take in those games is a real bonus.

“Equally, when we play here at home we have to believe that we’re capable of winning all our home games.

“If you can win your three home games it can put you in a strong position.”

Northern Ireland will take something of a step into the unknown against Luxembourg as the national team has been embroiled in controversy this year.

Striker Gerson Rodrigues received an 18-month suspended sentence and a EUR1,500 fine after being convicted for domestic abuse last year and lost an appeal in April of this year.

Seasoned manager Luc Holtz was lambasted for continuing to pick the 30-year-old Portuguese and last month the Luxembourg Football Federation announced his contract would not be renewed at the end of the year.

However, Holtz resigned eleven days ago to become manager of German third tier club SV Waldhof Mannheim and successor Jeff Strasser was unveiled on Tuesday.

Not ideal for the new manager but O’Neill feels times have changed and it’s no longer as simple as seeing games against Luxembourg as ‘gimmes’.

“No, it’s not. Luxembourg have developed a lot in recent years, they’ve got a number of players who play at a good level, in good leagues in Europe.

“So it’s a tough game. We had a tough game out there in November, although we put ourselves in a really strong position and allowed them back into the game.

“I’ve bad memories of getting beaten by Luxembourg and I’ve memories of beating them as well.

“We beat them here in friendlies and we beat them here in the Nations League.

“Teams change and they change over time. Luxembourg have changed their coach for example.

“Luc Holtz had been there for fifteen years and they have a new coach now.

“That’s just happened in the last few days so we don’t know how the new coach will play.

“Luxembourg are like ourselves, they don’t have the depth of players to have a huge change of personnel.

“We’ll have to look at the new coach and what he’s done at his clubs and what he’ll bring to the international arena, so there’s a little bit of the unknown there.”