When these sides met in Cologne little over a month ago, Northern Ireland were left to rue a pair of defensive miscues that ultimately proved their undoing in a 3-1 defeat.
Back in Belfast and roared on by a partisan crowd, they will instead feel that on this occasion, they simply ran out of time.
While there will certainly be frustrations that the goal they conceded against such opponents was from nothing more intricate than a set-piece, as the final whistle was blown, the boos that rained down on referee Jesus Gil Manzano were for not allowing more time as Northern Ireland pressed for an equaliser.
There was never a doubt that Northern Ireland would miss Conor Bradley in a game such as this.
The Liverpool right-back’s suspension, earned through a second booking of the campaign against Slovakia on Friday night, robbed O’Neill of a driving force in possession but also a key element of his press when not in possession.
The 22-year-old’s link with Galbraith was a key element of how the hosts had progressed the ball forward in the impressive win three days prior and, without him, there was a lesser degree of quality on the ball as evidenced by a 9% drop in passing accuracy between the two games.
Even still, as Northern Ireland worked a foothold in the second half, they looked the more likely to find the game’s second goal.
Baumann will have expected to make every save asked of him – Northern Ireland’s best chance was blazed over the bar by Reid – but it remained notable that he was the keeper under considerably more pressure as the game progressed.
With less than a third of the ball, Northern Ireland had more efforts on goal and more on target, but could not find an equaliser that had it arrived, would have felt in keeping with the momentum of the final 20 minutes.
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