Northern Ireland 0-1 Germany: Northern Ireland fell back but were not eliminated after the “painful” defeat.

Despite the loss and his frustration, O’Neill still had time to joke with a member of the German media.

“Looking at the statistics, it is ironic that Germany played more long balls than us in the match,” he said.

For his part, Julian Nagelsmann, whose comments after the reverse match in Cologne sparked ridicule from O’Neill, felt relieved after going through a “difficult” match.

“The second half was all about defence,” Nagelsmann told BBC Sport.

“As I said before the game, he was a really tough competitor, he had a lot of long balls and they fought and we had to fight as well.

“It was a good step in the right direction to beat a team like Northern Ireland and fight for second balls and be as strong as the opposition.”

Top spot in Group A is now out of reach as Germany has its grip on direct qualification.

But second place and a play-off spot are still up for grabs ahead of November’s qualifying matches in Slovakia and bottom-of-the-table Stade Luxembourg.

That may not be much consolation now, but a play-off as one of the four winners of the UEFA Nations League groups seems a safer fall back given other results across Europe, if Northern Ireland miss out on the top two spots.

So, after battling one of Europe’s giants, but coming up short, a young Northern Ireland side may have been down, but they were certainly not out.