The Northern Ireland boss is fully expecting to face a fired up German team following their shock 2-0 loss in Slovakia on Thursday in Group A, but O’Neill suggested that the history of his country tells you stunning results can be achieved.
That happened in Euro ’84 qualifying when Northern Ireland beat West Germany 1-0 at home and away thanks to goals from Ian Stewart and Norman Whiteside, while the World Cup encounter in Cologne will take place exactly 20 years on from a famous 1-0 victory in Belfast against a star studded England side when David Healy was on target.
“That was a really strong England team. We didn’t on the night expect the result to go our way,” said O’Neill at his media briefing.
“We were at home, which was a different situation obviously, but Northern Ireland have come here in the past and won against Germany. It was back in 1983. I remember Norman Whiteside scoring, so it is not impossible to come here and win. That’s the belief we will give to the players.
“When you have positive results like that over the years when you are a tiny nation like us, history tells us that we can at times produce results that people may not expect, and that’s what we have to believe on Sunday night.”
The Germans and coach Julien Nagelsmann have faced criticism at home in the last few days and are under severe pressure after the defeat in Slovakia, which followed other losses in Nations League matches versus Portugal and France.
Asked if Northern Ireland can take advantage of that, O’Neill said: “I would imagine the German national team always plays with pressure because the expectation is so high, and these players are used to dealing with that. The coach has coached at a very high level so he would be used to dealing with that as well.
“I think sometimes when you play for your national team criticism can be a little more personal than when you play for your club, so that brings added pressure because everyone wants to do well for their national team and their families.
“When you have players who play across Europe and come back and play for the national team, they want to give a good performance and good account of themselves.
“I haven’t read any of it but the criticism Germany had, if they need extra motivation they will get it from that.”
The Northern Ireland boss admitted that Slovakia’s victory over Germany wasn’t what he wanted.
“We can’t control what happens. I have said to the players what we believe we need to finish in the top two positions in the group,” said O’Neill.
“Probably Slovakia winning that game is a result we would have preferred not to have happened but we have to congratulate them on the fact they won that game. We are not really looking at the group.
“We have to take every double-header as it comes. You are almost in a play-off situation with teams. This is the hardest place in the group that we will come and play, so if we can take points in a fixture of this nature it will be a great start for us.”