Michael O'Neill admits Northern Ireland shot themselves in the foot in Plovdiv

Northern Ireland manager Michael O'Neill admitted his team "shot themselves in the foot" as they let a 2-0 lead slip to draw 2-2 with Bulgaria in their opening Euro 2020 qualifier in Plovdiv.

Goals from Gavin Whyte and Josh Magennis had put Northern Ireland in control, but Bulgaria fought back to earn a point thanks to strikes from Todor Nedelev and Stanislav Manolev.

O'Neill was left to rue his team's missed chances, especially in the second half when they failed to make the most of several good openings.

"We should have been out of sight at half-time," said O'Neill.

"We had three or four really good chances and we didn't take them.

"We got punished for it in the second half.

"We shot ourselves in the foot.

"We had a great chance to get three points and we let it slip away."

The result leaves Northern Ireland bottom of Group C after the opening round of matches, with the Czech Republic and Kosovo drawing 2-2 in the other game.

Northern Ireland will be hoping to get their campaign back on track when they host the Czech Republic at Windsor Park on Monday.

But O'Neill knows his team will need to be more clinical in front of goal if they are to challenge for a top-two finish in the group.

"We need to be more ruthless," he said.

"We had the chances to kill the game off and we didn't take them.

"We need to be more clinical in the final third."