Heading into this weekend’s World Cup qualifying clash against Hungary, there is a general sense of optimism that Ireland are capable of achieving a positive outcome in the game. That is quite the change in mentality in comparison to the last couple of campaigns.

The reasons for that are two-fold.

Heimir Hallgrimsson has improved the team over the last 12 months or so, amending some of the shortcomings that plagued the side over the last few years. They are more solid off the ball, while they have also displayed a newly found mental resilience by producing a couple of comeback wins in key fixtures.

Then you have the current state of the Hungarian team. They may possess some top class players, but the last year or so has been a difficult one for Marco Rossi’s side.

Indeed, many of their struggles can be traced back to a certain fixture between these two sides at the Aviva Stadium in the summer of 2024.

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Shock 2024 Ireland Loss Began Downward Spiral For Hungary

Transport yourself back to June of 2024.

Ireland had entered a seventh month without a permanent manager in place, with John O’Shea preparing the side for a pair of friendly games while many other nations were set for a jaunt to Euro 2024 in Germany.

Hungary fell into that latter group. In fact, many had tipped them as potential dark horses at the tournament.

Their form over the previous couple of years had been magnificent. Employing a ‘relationist’ tactical approach that was out of kilter with systems used by the vast majority of competing teams, they had taken some big scalps under manager Marco Rossi.

Having failed to qualify for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, they would go on to shine in the 2022 UEFA Nations League campaign. They would finish second in a League A group that also featured Italy, Germany, and England.

In fact, they beat England both home and away, including a 4-0 victory at Wembley Stadium. They would also take four points from the games against Germany, with two losses to the Italians seeing them finish one point behind the Azzuri.

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Hungary would then go undefeated as they topped their Euro 2024 qualifying group, finishing ahead of Serbia, Montenegro, and Bulgaria.

Indeed, as the made their way to Euro 2024, Hungary would come into that game at the Aviva Stadium unbeaten in 14 games.

What followed was a 2-1 loss against a managerless Ireland, with Troy Parrott scoring a late winner.

🇮🇪 2-1 🇭🇺
GOAL – Troy Parrott surely snatches victory for Ireland, with a late counter-attacking goal.
📺live on @rte2 and @RTEplayer 👉 https://t.co/XnOP6grnB7
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📻@RTERadio1Extra
👉 https://t.co/Sv0ZFHu5Ph pic.twitter.com/88jmr4GaVJ

— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) June 4, 2024

While this was essentially a meaningless game for Hungary, it did start what has been a considerable downward spiral since then.

With the images of Seamus Coleman rattling Dominik Szoboszlai still fresh in their minds, Hungary would go on to limp through the Euros campaign as they were eliminated in the group stages after losing two of their three games. A 1-0 victory over Scotland thanks to a 100th minute goal was the only exception.

That was just the beginning.

The Hungarians would go on to win one of their six games in the next UEFA Nations League campaign, including 5-0 and 4-0 losses to Germany and the Netherlands respectively. They would then lose 6-1 on aggregate to Turkey in their relegation play-off.

They would follow this win a 2-0 friendly loss to Sweden in the June window, before scraping a 2-1 win against Azerbaijan a few days later.

In all, it has been quite the reversal in fortunes for Hungary. Having gone undefeated in 14 games before they met Ireland last year, they have since lost eight of the 15 games they have played, winning just four.

Now, they will be aiming to get back on track during the upcoming World Cup qualifying campaign.

Despite their poor recent form, they will certainly fancy their chances of achieving at least a second-placed finish. Hungary sit 38th in the FIFA World Rankings, 22 places above Ireland. Still, that is 12 places below where they sat just over a year ago.

They will no doubt see the game on Saturday as an opportunity to arrest their recent slide, one that began in Dublin 15 months ago.

From an Irish perspective, you would hope that their dip in form lasts just a little bit longer.

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