Nations League, Group B3: Republic of Ireland 1 Israel 1
REP OF IRELAND: Caoimhín Kelleher (capt); Jake O’Brien, Jimmy Dunne, Liam Scales; Jack Moylan, Jason Knight, Jayson Molumby, Conor Coventry, Ryan Manning; Adam Idah, Troy Parrott.
ISRAEL: Assaf Tzur; Ilay Feingold, Idan Nachmias, Nikita Stoinow, Roy Revivo; Eliel Peretz, Dor Peretz (capt), Ethane Azoulay; Liel Abada, Oscar Gloukh; Dor Turgeman.
And so ends Ireland’s 2026 duties with Israel. Both sides will be delighted not to have to see each other again for a while. Ireland finish the international window on five points, level on points with Kosovo but behind them on head-to-head thanks to the defeat in Pristina. The group will conclude in November with Austria away and Kosovo at home.
FULL-TIME: Ireland 1 Israel 1 It ends with a whimper, as Israel clear Vata’s low ball in the game ends with honours even. The draw was a fair enough result – neither side had enough quality to deserve all three points.
Another yellow card for ISrael, this time for a stamp by Levi on Parrott. It’s getting testy again as the game winds down. One last chance for Ireland to get the ball into the box here – Vata’s ball is disappointing and that’s that.
Ireland under pressure now with two minutes to play, Jimmy Dunne concedes a corner – he was looking for a free kick but didn’t get it. Kelleher comes to claim, calm as you like. You feel there will be a chance for someone here – to whom will it fall?
Chance for Scales! It fell to the Celtic defender after a Vata long throw but he jabbed it over the bar. More changes for Ireland – Joel Bagan and Bosun Lawal on for Manning and Coventry. Six minutes to play.
Israel hit the post again! Oscar Gloukh has been excellent in this second half and he almost put Israel ahead there, whipping a right-foot volley against Kelleher’s post. Think Ireland would probably take a draw here.
SAVE! Ogbene chests down a Parrott flick-on and spears one towards the top corner but Assaf Tzur is equal to it. Fine save. The corner is cleared but Ogbene is fouled out on the right for yet another free kick. Fifteen minutes to go and we’re still at 1-1.
Huge let-off for Ireland. Oscar Gloukh finds Gandalman on the penalty spot and his shot catches the bottom of Kelleher’s left-hand post and deflects wide. Ireland were aspeel at the back there. Feels like Jimmy Dunne isn’t really at the races here – time for John Egan to shore it up maybe?
Manning spears one into the box that causes huge confusion but Israel survive. Hallgrimsson takes that as his cue to make changes. Chiedozie Ogbene and Rocco Vata on for Moylan and Idah. Not sure about that one, Heimir – Moylan was really coming into his own and seems fairly miffed to be taken off.
Brilliant work from Moylan down the right to force a corner, turning this way and that and riding two Israeli tackles. The corner is half-cleared and Moylan does brilliant again to win Ireland a free kick on the edge of the box…
An hour gone and this game is anyone’s now. Peretz gets in behind Dunne but Kelleher is out to tidy up. Idah has a swing at one from a Moylan lay-off but he skies it into the empty stand. Hard to imagine there won’t be more goals.
Ireland are labouring a touch in possession. They’re trying to get Moylan into the game but he’s getting crowded out a bit too easily. Parrott and Idah almost combined for a chance there but it came to nothing.
Chance for Israel, as Abada find himself in the clear in behind Scales. He’s forced wide and has to shoot early, so Kelleher is comfortable in getting down to it. But the Israel tails are up.
Very disappointing from Ireland, who had looked quite comfortable as the Israelis lost their discipline. The shot kind of skittled through Scales’s legs, hitting him on both ankles before falling to Peretz. They’ve had more of the ball since the goal but this is a dangerous fixture now.
Goal for Israel! Very sloppy from Ireland, with a deflected shot finding its way through to Dor Peretz five yards from goal. He’ll never score an easier one. Ireland 1 Israel 1
Back at it for the second half. No action taken by the referee on that half-time row.
Reports coming in from the stadium that one of the Ireland back-room staff was spat at by an Israel player during that half-time clash. Fitness coach Damien Doyle has alleged he was spat as the teams went off for the break.
Six fouls on Molumby in that half, by our count. Despite that, neither of the Israel yellow cards came via a foul on the West Brom midfielder.
HALF-TIME: Ireland 1 Israel 0 Ireland probably deserve their lead, on balance. It’s been bitty and niggly, with three yellow cards and endless stoppages for frees. Things look to have got a bit heated at the tunnel there as well. Will update with more if anything comes of it.
And Parrott makes no mistake, bottom corner. Ireland 1 Israel 0
A booking for Liam Scales there for an ill-advised lunge in the Israel half. This game could do with half-time – the tackles are starting to fly in a bit.
Penalty it is. Nailed-on for a trip on Dunne as he followed in. All down to Troy now…
SAVE! And a penalty shout! Manning fed a lovely ball into Parrott whose snapshot was saved. On the follow-up, Jimmy Dunne was brought down and now there’s a VAR check by the Spanish referee, who initially gave a corner…
The Israelis seem to be taking turns fouling Molumby. That’s seven foulds for them already, at least four of which have been on the Waterford man. This one brings a free kick in a good position for Ireland, Ryan Manning standing over it…
Approaching the half-hour mark and that’s the first booking of the night, with Israel centre-half Idan Nachmias carded for taking out Idah after the Ireland striker had rolled him. Free kick to Ireland in the centre of the pitch, 40 yards out. Comes to nothing. Ireland were 3-0 this time last week but it’s a much more even game tonight. Ireland probably have marginally more quality but haven’t really threatened in the box.
Inches wide by Molumby, whose shot from the edge of the box almost brings his first ever Ireland goal. It was a lovely lay-off from Moylan, who is starting to look lively. Better from Ireland.
First corner of the game goes Israel’s way. For all of Ireland’s possession, they had only that quick couple of shots from Idah and Parrot to show for it. Israel don’t make them pay this time but they soon force another one, with Kelleher diving to tip a shot from Abada round the post. It comes to nothing but Israel are having a decent spell here.
First shot of the night belongs to Adam Idah, turning onto a Manning pass on the edge of the box. It’s pushed away by Israeli goalie Assaf Tzur, who only made his debut on Thursday against Kosovo. Parrott soon has him scrambling again but he drags his shot wide. Ireland completely dominating possession in the early stages.
Off we go. Ireland start as expected, with Knight at right wing-back and Moylan looking to scurry ahead of him.
No handshake from Kelleher, as with O’Shea last week. Kick-off imminent.
The teams come out of the tunnel to the silence of the empty stadium. Covid vibes. Now the anthems.
Finn Azaz played well on Thursday but has been left out here, although Hallgrímsson doesn’t rule out using him at some stage in the match. “It’s mostly fitness,” the manager told RTE. “Obviously, emotional fitness is also an important factor in players. He played 90 minutes against Austria. It took a toll, got a little knock, but he is available to play and we might see him in the end of the game or middle of the game.”
Heimir Hallgrimsson confirms Jimmy Dunne replaces the absent Dara O’Shea for Israel game in Serbia, while Finn Azaz starts the game on the bench due to fitness – ‘obviously emotional fitness is an important factor in players’ #rtesoccer pic.twitter.com/E9uNkWFa2j
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) October 4, 2026
Gavin Cooney has this update from the stadium…
“The Israel squad have been affected by a virus in the lead-up to this game, with members of their backroom staff wearing face masks. Israeli media report all of Omri Glazer , Manor Solomon, Guy Mizrahi, Thai Bribo and Raz Shlomo are ill. Israel have been unable to name a full squad, and so have only 22 players available tonight.”
So four changes for Ireland from the team that drew with Austria on Thursday night. Jake O’Brien comes in for John Egan, Jimmy Dunne for captain Dara O’Shea, Jayson Molumby for Finn Azz and Jason Knight for James Abankwah, who is suspended. You’d imagine it will be a fairly straightforward formation – O’Brien, Dunne and Scales as the three at the back, Knight and Manning as wing-backs, Coventry and Molumby anchoring the midfield, with Moylan, Idah and Parrot making up the attack.
And as Gavin Cummiskey reminds as four Irish players are a booking away from missing the Austria game in November: Molumby, Idah, Coventry and Manning.
The other match in the group tonight has ended in a draw, with Austria grabbing a late equaliser against Kosovo. Fisnik Asllani scored for the home side in Pristina, putting Kosov ahead on 70 minutes. But a Christoph Lang header after a flick on from a long throw snatched Austria a share of the points five minutes from time.
That’s probably a good result for Ireland, all in all. It leave Austria on eight points after four games, with Kosovo on five. An Ireland win over the next few hours would leave them on seven points after the opening international window. To say we’d have taken that after Pristina is world-class understatement.
Of course, there’s no RTE coverage again tonight. The game will be carried live on RTE Two but it will be the world feed, with no studio and no analysis.
And here’s Israel’s starting XI:
ISRAEL: Assaf Tzur; Ilay Feingold, Idan Nachmias, Nikita Stoinow, Roy Revivo; Eliel Peretz, Dor Peretz (capt), Ethane Azoulay; Liel Abada, Oscar Gloukh; Dor Turgeman. Subs: Eliasi, Glazer, Dasa, Gandelman, Shua, Baribo, Solomna, Levi, Mizrahi, Kanichowsky, Abu Farchi.
Here’s how Ireland start:
REP OF IRELAND: Caoimhín Kelleher (capt); Jake O’Brien, Jimmy Dunne, Liam Scales; Jack Moylan, Jason Knight, Jayson Molumby, Conor Coventry, Ryan Manning; Adam Idah, Troy Parrott. Subs: Max O’Leary, Josh Keeley, Laim Kitching, John Egan, Joel Bagan, Bosun Lawal, Finn Azaz, Killian Phillips, Rocco Vata, Chiedozie Ogbene, Thomas Cannon, Owen Elding.
Still no sign of the starting line-ups just yet, so while we wait, here’s some Troy Parrott magic from Thursday’s game against Austria:
Mary Hannigan has named the striker ‘Paradona’ for his “twisty, turny, dribbly, nutmeggy piece of art” to put Ireland ahead at the Aviva.
Ken Early has made the trip to Serbia for the game.
“Backa Topola, a little town separated from Belgrade to the south by more than 100km of dead-flat cornfields, has been selected to host Ireland v Israel mainly due to its remoteness even from the rest of Serbia,” he writes.
“The Ireland team have played away games against Georgia in Mainz, Ukraine in Lodz and, last week, Israel in Debrecen, but this is the first time a game has been taken away from Dublin due to war. Ireland is involved only in the informational dimension of the current, diffuse, many-sided war, but even that is intense enough to overturn normality.”
Read Ken’s column in full here:
[ Ken Early: Israel’s war in Gaza brings Ireland to remote cornfields in SerbiaOpens in new window ]
Gavin Cooney has news for us from Serbia:
“Uefa has confirmed to The Irish Times that the two Israel journalists who asked questions of Heimir Hallgrímsson yesterday have been excluded from both of today’s post match press conferences. The decision was made by Uefa, and it is understood they are being excluded because of ‘their political-based questions’ to Hallgrimsson.”
In case you missed it, here’s Gavin Cummiskey’s report from yesterday’s press conference:
The venue for this evening’s game: TSC Arena in Backa Topola, Serbia.
The pitch at the TSC Arena ahead of the Nations League game between the Republic of Ireland and Israel. Photograph: Ryan Byrne/Inpho
Gavin Cummiskey’s report on the press conferences from yesterday is well worth reading, just for how it all went down.
Should have some team news in the next while. Until then, there’s plenty of reading about the game and everything surrounding it in the weekend Irish Times. Gavin Cooney’s account of another mad day in the Ireland-Israel circus is here.
[ Israeli media call Ireland press conference incident ‘disgraceful’ as fury swirlsOpens in new window ]
Tony O’Donoghue had some interesting news to relay from the ground to RTÉ Radio just now. In the wake of yesterday’s pre-match press conference, two Israeli journalists have been banned by Uefa from attending the post-match press conference.
The scenes at Heimir Hallgrímsson’s press conference yesterday included one of them invoking the attempted hijacking of a FlyDubai flight during the week and the other accusing an unnamed Irish player of using racist language during the first game. Uefa have clearly taken a dim view of their behaviour and they won’t be allowed into the post-game media rooms.
The longest international window (in every sense) limps towards its end. Ireland are in the back of beyonds in Serbia, an out-of-the-way town called Backa Topola, ready for their second game against Israel. The temperature around this one has been raised relentlessly but, as we saw last weekend, at a certain point the whistle goes and the football takes over. We’ll be here to bring you whatever developments there are to report.
Already today there have been a couple of extraneous curve balls thrown at this game. Around two o’clock this afternoon, Uefa confirmed that they would been allowing Israel’s request to wear black armbands in memory of the October 7th attacks in 2023. Ireland will be wearing their black armbands again and there won’t be any handshakes or exchanges of pennants.