![\"Players](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/5250340_3_articleinline_3584634.jpg\" "\\"Players")
Players and officials during the UEFA Nations League B match between the Republic of Ireland and Israel at TSC Arena in Ba\u010dka Topola, Serbia. Pic: Stephen McCarthy\/Sportsfile.<\/p>\nThe extended international break is finally over and given the discourse surrounding the Republic of Ireland\u2019s two friendlies against Israel, the end hasn\u2019t come too soon.<\/p>\n
On the pitch Ireland will be somewhat pleased to have secured five points from their four Nations League games, although the loss away to Kosovo and the surrendering of a two-goal lead at home to Austria will still be the subject of frustration.<\/p>\n
The 3-0 victory over Israel was the obvious highlight but again there will be some lamenting over the fact that they couldn\u2019t hang onto their lead against the Israelis in their most recent meeting on Sunday night, which was played at an empty stadium in Backa Topola, Northern Serbia rather than at a full Aviva stadium in Dublin.<\/p>\n
Those results leave Ireland sitting third in Group 3 of League B, level on points with Kosovo who are second on the head-to-head record while Austria are three points clear of both at the top, and Israel are three points adrift of both at the bottom.<\/p>\n
But the main discussions over the last few weeks (and months) haven\u2019t been about on the pitch matters. And now the matches have been played, the main talking points remain what has happened off the field.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet the Irish stew in their hatred for us in their dressing room and let\u2019s hope we don\u2019t get drawn against them in the future,\u201d an Israeli commentator said just before the final whistle on Sunday night.<\/p>\n
The Irish players again refused to shake their opponents\u2019 hands before and after the match and they again decided to bow their heads when Israel\u2019s national anthem, Hatikvah, was played.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt happened again: Ireland\u2019s players bowed their heads during Hatikvah,\u201d was the headline in Ynet, the digital platform of the Yediot Aharonot newspaper, while Channel 12\u2019s online platform wrote, \u201cOnce again the Irish disgraced the anthem and did not shake hands.<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s largest-circulation daily newspaper, Yisrael Hayom, also had their say writing; \u201cJust like the first game, the most important thing for the Irish team was to show disrespect.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn a series of petty and stupid gestures, including showing disrespect to Hatikvah, they ruined the sporting element of the game and came away looking small-minded.\u201d<\/p>\n
Players and officials during the UEFA Nations League B match between the Republic of Ireland and Israel at TSC Arena in Ba\u010dka Topola, Serbia. Pic: Stephen McCarthy\/Sportsfile.<\/p>\n
The criticism didn\u2019t just come from the written press as one panellist on Channel 12 television\u2019s Morning News show on Monday added: \u201cThe hypocrisy of the Irish is unbelievable.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot long ago they shook hands with the Afghan national (cricket) side \u2013 that\u2019s the same Taliban that oppresses and kills women. That\u2019s okay but when it comes to the Jews it\u2019s not okay. This is pure anti-Semitism.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perhaps even more criticism may have followed had two Israeli journalists not been banned by Uefa from attending the post-match press conference.<\/p>\n
Ireland’s pre-match press conference on Saturday was cut short after the duo asked Heimir Hallgrimsson questions about the flydubai incident and alleged racist abuse from Irish players in the first Nations League match between the two countries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The extended international break is finally over and given the discourse surrounding the Republic of Ireland\u2019s two friendlies…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":645565,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43,1842],"class_list":["post-645564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-republic-of-ireland-mnt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645564","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=645564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645564\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}