Ireland midfielder Jeff Hendrick believes that the Boys in Green made a statement in their draw against Serbia, but must follow it up with victory over Azerbaijan next month.
Hendrick was one of Ireland's standout players at the Aviva Stadium on Tuesday night as Stephen Kenny's men rescued a point late on against a strong Serbian side.
Ireland looked much improved from Saturday's disappointing draw against Azerbaijan, with a Milenkovic own goal in the 86th minute handing them their second point in the group.
Speaking following the draw, Hendrick explained that he believes Ireland made a statement with the strong result against Serbia but noted the importance of following that up with a win against Azerbaijan next month.
"We put in a good performance and that's something to build on. We should be looking to go to Azerbaijan now and playing like that and getting a win. It's definitely doable and it's something that we should be achieving.
"I think we had to make a statement if I'm being honest. It was good to get the draw late on, over the last few years I think we've been scoring a lot of late goals but that's the character of the Ireland squads. I think we definitely needed to make a statement tonight and we did that but we need to bring that onto next month."
Ireland had goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu to thank for keeping them in the game at times, with the 19-year-old once again impressing between the sticks for Stephen Kenny's side.
When quizzed on the Bazunu, Hendrick praised the Manchester City loanee and noted that he is one of a host of excellent goalkeepers available to Ireland at the moment.
"I've been impressed with Gav since he's come in, he's grown into the jersey as well, each game he keeps getting better and more confident. Not only in the saves that he makes but his distribution with the ball at his feet is very good, we've been lucky over the years, we've had great goalkeepers.
"There's more great goalkeepers in the squad, Darren who isn't here, Caoimhin, Mark Travers as well so we're lucky."
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