A first two-goal comeback in a qualifier by Ireland since 1981 yielded a point against Hungary that they’ll hope to build on to reach next year\u2019s World Cup.<\/p>\n
Substitute Adam Idah supplied the stoppage-time equaliser to complete the turnaround from a position by trailing by two goals inside the first 15 minutes.<\/p>\n
Barnab\u00e1s Varga and Roland Sallai punished Irish slackness early on but a reply four minutes into the second half, followed by Sallai\u2019s impetuous red card, gave them the initiative to eventually source a second goal.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt we deserved the three points,\u201d reflected Heimir Hallgr\u00edmsson, when asked about his lack of celebration at full-time.<\/p>\n
\u201cPsychologically it was difficult coming back from two goals but Hungary were wasting time from their second goal.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you don\u2019t win, the recovery is more difficult but I could see us grow. I said at half-time we can get back into the match. We had nothing to lose so said we\u2019d go gung-ho.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had 40 crosses in the match, some underhit, and there were some fouls against us in the box that the referee didn\u2019t penalise Hungary for.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not easy to come from two goals down, especially against a nation ranked 22 places ahead of us, but we were brave and goals change games.<\/p>\n
\u201cTuesday against Armenia becomes an even more important game for us. We said four points over this window would be okay, even if we felt we could have got three against Hungary.\u201d This was the eight time in his nine competitive game of his reign that Ireland fell behind.<\/p>\n
Fighting back to extract a draw at the death will give them a spring heading on Tuesday to Armenia, hammered 5-0 by top seeds Portugal.<\/p>\n
Hallgr\u00edmsson\u2019s preference for Ryan Manning further up the pitch influenced the decision to fill the left-back place created by Robbie Brady\u2019s absence with Matt Doherty.<\/p>\n
Albeit a right-footer, he\u2019d switched flanks in his club career, less so Ireland, but his first contribution was one to forget.<\/p>\n
Choosing to send his clearance header from a left-wing cross into a central area was a risk he wouldn\u2019t have survived had Finn Azaz made his presence felt against Callum Styles. Instead, the West Brom midfielder was afforded the space to hopefully hook his pass into the box.<\/p>\n
Dara O\u2019Shea was culpable in letting Barnab\u00e1s Varga drift the wrong side of him, offering time to angle his shot beyond Kelleher, but Doherty\u2019s slowness in pushing up kept him onside.<\/p>\n
That early concession silenced what was a boisterous home crowd, feasting on the frenzy around the start of a qualifying campaign.<\/p>\n
Azaz almost reignited their spirits on nine minutes with Ireland\u2019s first chance. Jake O\u2019Brien produced the opening by raiding from deep down the right but Azaz could only connect his studs with the delivery, spinning the ball wide.<\/p>\n
Hungary signalled their intent again by Varga flashing a free header wide at the back post but they were gifted a corner that led to their second. Confusion between Collins and Doherty resulted in the latter conceding the corner and the pair were all at sea again from Dominik Szoboszlai\u2019s deadball.<\/p>\n
His out-swinging corner was pinpointed precisely for Roland Sallai to dart across the pair and angle his header into Kelleher\u2019s far corner.<\/p>\n
Two goals down against a side so comfortable in possession \u2013 with Szoboszlai performing the quarter-back role by receiving the ball straight from goalkeeper D\u00e9nes Dibusz \u2013 looked ominous for Ireland.<\/p>\n
Doherty dragged a shot wide and Evan Ferguson saw his snapshot saved and it appeared Ireland\u2019s plot for a response was channelling the plan to O\u2019Brien on overlapping runs.<\/p>\n
Kelleher had to be alert approaching the break to cut out a cross into the path of Sallai as Ireland\u2019s vulnerabilities were again exposed.<\/p>\n
Rather than hook Doherty or any teammate at the break, the same XI were implored to rescue the mission in the second half.<\/p>\n
Ferguson drawing a foul by Attila Szalai triggered a booking for the defender but also the opportunity for Ryan Manning to unleash a free-kick.<\/p>\n
Once D\u00e9nes Dibusz parried the curling free, it offered a glimpse for Ireland to pounce. Headers by Sammie Szmodics and Collins in the box eventually fell to Ferguson, who chested the ball down and smashed it home from close range.<\/p>\n
Relief in the crowd at cutting the arrears upgraded to euphoria when Sallai\u2019s rush of blood manifested in raking his studs onto the ankle of Dara O\u2019Shea. He mightn\u2019t have connected fully but VAR was never going to overturn the decision, giving Ireland the numerical advantage for the final 35 minutes. \u201cI\u2019m not happy with the player\u2019s attitude for reacting like this,\u201d admitted Hungary boss Marco Rossi afterwards.<\/p>\n
Still susceptible on the break, Ireland allowed Bendeg\u00faz Bolla two chances around the hour mark, the first saved by Kelleher and second arced wide.<\/p>\n
At the other end, both centre-backs O\u2019Shea and Collins nodded off-target as the pressure mounted.<\/p>\n
Dibusz denied both Azaz and Manning late on but a flurry of corners belatedly struck gold as Idah soared into the air to plant his downward header beyond the stranded goalkeeper.<\/p>\n
\n IRELAND: C Kelleher; J O\u2019Brien, N Collins, D O\u2019Shea, M Doherty (J Taylor 67); J Cullen (C Ogbene 67), J Knight (K McAteer 88); S Szmodics (M Johnston 78), F Azaz (A Idah 78), R Manning; E Ferguson.<\/p>\n
HUNGARY: D Dibusz; L Nego, A Szalai, W Orb\u00e1n; B Bolla (A Mocsi 67), R Sallai, C Styles, M Kerkez (Z Nagy 80); D Szoboszlai, A T\u00f3th (B Otvos 55); B Varga (B Toth 80).<\/p>\n
Referee: Harm Osmers (GER)\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n Attendance: 50,137\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A first two-goal comeback in a qualifier by Ireland since 1981 yielded a point against Hungary that they’ll…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4937,"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-4936","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\/4936","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=4936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}