What\u2019s being billed as the biggest match in Hungary for 40 years could be decided on Sunday by Ireland\u2019s set-piece supremacy, warns the hosts’ manager Marco Rossi.<\/p>\n
Whereas the second-placed Magyars were fortunate to emerge from Armenia with a narrow 1-0 win on Thursday, Ireland were emphatic 2-0 victors over top seeds Portugal.<\/p>\n
Both rivals have it in their own hands to clinch the runners-up berth in their World Cup qualification group when they clash on Sunday afternoon at a full 67,000-seater Pusk\u00e1s Arena.<\/p>\n
Neither will be able to qualify for the March playoffs through the Nations League, rendering this meeting a Cup final for entry.<\/p>\n
Rossi noticed how Ireland\u2019s corner-kick routine led to the first of Troy Parrott\u2019s goals on Thursday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He cautioned against similar methods to avoid their dream of a first World Cup since 1986 being eliminated in the last of six group matches.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are under enormous pressure to reach the World Cup,\u201d said Rossi, whose side have featured at the last three European Championships.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe good news is that from this point of view, our opponent is in the same shoes, and the playoffs are at stake for them too.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is one of the most important 90 minutes of the recent period ahead of us but we shouldn’t get too stressed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we have to pay close attention to are the corners and free-kicks because Ireland is frighteningly dangerous from these.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Portuguese were also put in difficult situations in their last match. We prepared for them in light of these and I trust that we will be able to emerge victorious.”<\/p>\n
Rossi left Lansdowne Road in September fuming that his team squandered a 2-0 lead to claim a mere point. He also accused Ireland of being \u2018rough\u2019, a view he retains heading into the rematch.<\/p>\n
\u201cIreland played hard in Dublin, having several rough tackles,\u201d explained the Italian.<\/p>\n
\u201cI criticised the referee after the match and have maintained this opinion ever since. My statement was well-founded.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don’t know how to prepare a team most effectively against such provocation. We also have to take on tough challenges without any fear. Based on the yellow cards we received and Roland Sallai’s sending-off, it seemed Ireland were the rougher team.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What\u2019s being billed as the biggest match in Hungary for 40 years could be decided on Sunday by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":141410,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1113,61,60,2539,5782,43,5783],"class_list":{"0":"post-141409","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-fai","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-league-of-ireland","12":"tag-local-soccer","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-premiership"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141409","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=141409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141409\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}