{"id":141369,"date":"2025-11-15T14:51:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-15T14:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/141369\/"},"modified":"2025-11-15T14:51:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-15T14:51:08","slug":"ireland-accused-of-provoking-opponents-by-hungary-after-series-of-red-cards-in-irish-matches-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/141369\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland accused of \u2018provoking\u2019 opponents by Hungary after series of red cards in Irish matches \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Hungarians are on notice after the Republic of Ireland<\/a>\u2019s surprise victory over Portugal last Thursday in Dublin.<\/p>\n

\u201cDid you see it? What do you think?\u201d asked Marco Rossi, their Italian manager. \u201c[Ireland had] a clear tactical plan that worked really well against Portugal. I think that plan was based essentially on the characteristics of the players.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rossi, speaking at the Hungary press conference on Saturday in their state-of-the-art Globall Hotel, said he has never encountered more \u201cphysical\u201d opposition than Ireland while the Rapid Vienna right-back Bendeg\u00faz Bolla accused Irish players of provocation ahead of the last World Cup qualifier at the Pusk\u00e1s Ar\u00e9na in Budapest on Sunday (kick-off 2pm)<\/p>\n

Neither manager nor player were trying to court controversy, but it seemed like they were talking directly to Norwegian referee Espen Esk\u00e5s rather than the Irish journalists who journeyed to the outskirts of the Hungarian capital.<\/p>\n

\"BendeguzBendeguz Bolla of Hungary applauds to the fans. Photograph: Hrach Khachatryan\/Getty <\/p>\n

Remarkably, three red cards have been shown by three different referees to players from Hungary, Armenia and Portugal in recent qualifiers at the Aviva Stadium. You may have heard about Cristiano Ronaldo\u2019s sending off for elbowing Dara O\u2019Shea last Thursday, but Hungary\u2019s Rolland Salai was also dismissed for raking down O\u2019Shea\u2019s Achilles tendon on September 6th while Armenia captain Tigran Barseghyan was dismissed for head-headbutting Azaz.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course we have noticed that they like provoking their opponents,\u201d said Bolla ahead of training on one of the hotel\u2019s six pitches. \u201cWe can never afford to retaliate or make mistakes, like in the first match when we played with a numerical disadvantage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rossi, the 61-year-old former Sampdoria defender who carved out a career for himself at Hungarian and Slovakia clubs before taking the national job in 2018, had plenty to more to say about the physical Irish \u2013 or is it \u201cBritish\u201d? \u2013 approach.<\/p>\n

\u201cIreland, we have to realise, at the moment, are one of the most physical teams we play. Even compared to Germany or England when we played them, Ireland is one of the most physical teams and we have to be aware of that for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rossi even contested the sending off of Salai in the 2-2 draw on September 6th, stating immediately afterwards that the game was more like a \u201cwrestling match\u201d than international football.<\/p>\n

\u201cI gave my opinion about what happened on the pitch,\u201d he said. \u201cThere was clear contact and a foul on [a Hungarian player] before the [Evan Ferguson] goal to make it 2-1.<\/p>\n

\u201cRegarding the [Sallai] red card, probably, the referee punished the reaction of our player [to being held by Josh Cullen] but there was not a clear contact.\u201d<\/p>\n

Replays, however, show clear contact by Sallai on O\u2019Shea.<\/p>\n

\u201cEspecially in the first half,\u201d Rossi continued, \u201cthere were a lot of tackles where maybe the Irish were a bit more \u2013 how do I say it? \u2013 stronger than normal but they were not punished.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think we have to make our players aware of provocation. The Irish, like all the British players, they do their job on the pitch, it will be not a question for us, we will only be focused on what we have to do, be aggressive as well, going into the crashes, the duels and tackles, with no fear.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hungary only needs a draw to progress to a play-off semi-final in March while Ireland must win. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, back in Budapest, Ireland manager Heimir Hallgr\u00edmsson showered praise on S\u00e9amus Coleman before training at the Pusk\u00e1s Ar\u00e9na.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn life, and it applies to football, there\u2019s two kinds of people,\u201d said Hallgr\u00edmsson. \u201cPeople that are vacuums and people that are batteries, you know, that will give energy, will give joy, will give enthusiasm. And he is a really, really, really big battery for this group in so many ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coleman was critical of Hallgr\u00edmsson\u2019s decision to select Jake O\u2019Brien, Matt Doherty and Jimmy Dunne as the right backs in the Ireland squad last September, before the former captain was recalled in October. <\/p>\n

Hallgr\u00edmsson felt that Coleman lacked match sharpness, previously stating his selection would have sent the wrong message to the other players. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe more Ireland produce [players like] S\u00e9amus in the future, the better it will be for the football team,\u201d said Hallgr\u00edmsson. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut that\u2019s probably the biggest compliment I can give to anyone in life \u2013 he is the biggest battery I have worked with in a football team. Really, he is a man that loves his country and will do anything, not only to shine himself, but to get the best out of everyone around him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Hungarians are on notice after the Republic of Ireland\u2019s surprise victory over Portugal last Thursday in Dublin.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":141370,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43,1842,4018],"class_list":["post-141369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-republic-of-ireland-mnt","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}