\n HUNGARY\u20262 (Barnab\u00e1s Varga 2, Roland Sallai 15)\u00a0\n <\/p>\n
Twelve months on from Declan Rice and Jack Grealish rubbing Ireland\u2019s noses in it, there was a humiliating element to Dominik Szoboszlai performing the quarter-back role on the same stage.<\/p>\n
Hungary were, just like England, cruising at 2-0 when their star player, widely expected to damage Ireland in the final third, dropped into his final third to receive the ball straight from goalkeeper D\u00e9nes Dibusz.<\/p>\n
Szoboszlai was the orchestrator of the visitors\u2019 dominance, the 24-year-old bellowing instructions to all around to press Ireland and jab his finger in the direction of passes he wanted teammates to execute.<\/p>\n
Hungary were in keepball mode for that opening half whereas Ireland struggled to keep the ball at all.<\/p>\n
Matt Doherty\u2019s obvious discomfort chopping inside on his right foot from left-foot invariably led to sideways or backwards passes, darkening the mood of a full house whose raucous verve was dimmed by the horrific start.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s unknown if Dibusz aversion to kicking was through unwillingness or inability but as the game was overturned in the second half the clearances he then delegated to defender Willi Orban became more wayward.<\/p>\n
That swing in momentum was triggered by a combination of Evan Ferguson cementing his status as Ireland\u2019s saviour and Roland Sallai committing an act of hari-kari.<\/p>\n
Had Hungary\u2019s second goalscorer not lashed out at Dara O\u2019Shea at 2-1, we can only wonder if Ireland\u2019s pursuit of an equaliser would have been so relentless.<\/p>\n
That extra man for the last 40 minutes created gaps and overloads that the hosts utilised to sling a barrage of crosses into the box. As much as Orban and his fellow centre-back Attila Szalai gamely cleared with headers, eventually they cracked.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can take pride in what we did, especially in the second half by coming back, showing character, spirit, power and energy,\u201d surmised Heimir Hallgrimsson afterwards.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt half-time, we had nothing to lose so I said let\u2019s go gung-ho at this. In the end, we\u2019re disappointed not to have scored a third and picked up all three points.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can remember how good we can be when we play on our front foot but also learn from what happened today.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hallgrimsson was reluctant to lay blame at Doherty\u2019s feet for the disastrous concessions, both of which he had an unwanted role in.<\/p>\n
For the opener within two minutes, sending his header from a left-wing cross into a central area was too much of a risk but Finn Azaz\u2019s failure to pressurise Callum Styles warranted culpability too. Credit must go to Barnab\u00e1s Varga for angling his shot beyond Kelleher even if Doherty\u2019s slowness in pushing up kept him onside.<\/p>\n
Confusion between Nathan Collins and Doherty resulted in the latter conceding the needless corner that was punished.<\/p>\n
Szoboszlai\u2019s deadball has both defenders scrambling, affording Sallai space to dart across the pair and plant his header into Kelleher\u2019s far corner.<\/p>\n
Two goals down after 15 minutes against a side so comfortable in possession, another qualification series being over before it hardly began seemed inevitable for Ireland.<\/p>\n
Doherty dragged a shot wide and it appeared Ireland\u2019s ploy for a response was channelling the plan to Jake 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 Szalai triggered a booking for the defender but also the opportunity for Ryan Manning to unleash a free-kick.<\/p>\n
Once 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 the sending-off.<\/p>\n
He mightn\u2019t have connected fully but VAR was never going to overturn the decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wasn\u2019t 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 super-sub Adam Idah soared into the air to plant his downward header beyond a fatigued goalkeeper unable to keep this one out.<\/p>\n
Time stood still again from another O\u2019Shea deep into the six minutes of stoppage but it veered over. Szoboszlai couldn’t have stomached another touchdown at the death.<\/p>\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":"HUNGARY\u20262 (Barnab\u00e1s Varga 2, Roland Sallai 15)\u00a0 Twelve months on from Declan Rice and Jack Grealish rubbing Ireland\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6783,"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-6782","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\/6782","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=6782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6782\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}