{"id":266766,"date":"2025-11-16T22:25:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-16T22:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/266766\/"},"modified":"2025-11-16T22:25:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-16T22:25:10","slug":"parrott-hat-trick-sickens-hungary-as-ireland-grab-world-cup-playoff-spot-in-wild-win-world-cup-2026-qualifiers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/266766\/","title":{"rendered":"Parrott hat-trick sickens Hungary as Ireland grab World Cup playoff spot in wild win | World Cup 2026 qualifiers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Troy Parrott\u2019s brilliant hat-trick, his third coming in the depths of injury time, delivered the Republic of Ireland<\/a> into the World Cup playoffs, denying a sickened Hungary at the death. To cap a remarkable week in Irish football history, Parrott, the two-goal hero of Portugal\u2019s defeat in Dublin on Thursday, stunned Budapest\u2019s Puskas Arena into silence, barring the ecstatic scenes among the Irish contingent.<\/p>\n

Parrott had described Thursday\u2019s defenestration of Cristiano Ronaldo\u2019s team as the best night of his life, only for Sunday to be yet more gloriously dramatic. The former Tottenham trainee, who plays in the Dutch Eredivisie for AZ Alkmaar, would almost certainly not have started Ireland\u2019s double-header had Roma\u2019s Evan Ferguson not injured an ankle.<\/p>\n

His third goal, poked from the grasp of Hungarian goalkeeper Denes Dibusz, came in the sixth minute of injury time, following a deft, falling-leaf finish for his 80th minute equaliser. In the first half, after Daniel Lukacs had scored from a third-minute corner, on 15 minutes Parrott stepped up to coolly slot a penalty, defying a baying, partisan home crowd doing its best to distract him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said against Portugal that this is what dreams are made of, but I think tonight, I will never have a better night in my whole life,\u201d Parrott said, after the wild celebrations following his goal and the final whistle. \u201cIt is a fairytale. You can\u2019t even dream about something like that. I have no words to describe the emotions right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hungary appeared set fair for the playoffs next March when, in the 37th minute, Barnabas Varga chested the ball down with his back to goal just outside the box, swivelled and unleashed a stunning left-foot half volley.<\/p>\n

As full time approached, with news of Portugal\u2019s 9-1 defeat of Armenia meaning they will head to North America as Group F winners, tension wracked the home team. Liverpool\u2019s Dominik Szoboszlai was continuing his excellent club form but those around him cracked under the pressure Ireland exacted on them. Heimir Hallgr\u00edmsson had opted for the same direct tactics that confounded Portugal though Ireland required Caoimhin Kelleher, their keeper, to play his very best, too.<\/p>\n

Hungary\u2019s attempts to kill off the contest in the closing stages fell spectacularly flat. \u201cThey wasted their own time and that\u2019s kind of funny,\u201d said Hallgr\u00edmsson, the Icelander who co-managed his home nation at Euro 2016 and then led them at the 2018 World Cup. \u201cNow we need to use this moment and continue improving.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ireland players celebrate in front of their disbelieving fans in Hungary. Photograph: Ryan Byrne\/Inpho\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

After the substitute Johnny Kenny was denied by Dibusz during a fraught injury-time period, Parrott stole on to Liam Scales\u2019s flicked header to poke home his winner, before being mobbed by exultant teammates and substitutes.<\/p>\n

Awaiting Ireland in March are two single-leg playoff games to qualify for the United States, Mexico and Canada next June. Should they be successful, Ireland will play their first World Cup finals since reaching the last 16 in 2002. The draw for those playoffs, to be played against other European countries, will be made on Thursday this week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Troy Parrott\u2019s brilliant hat-trick, his third coming in the depths of injury time, delivered the Republic of Ireland…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266767,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-266766","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}