Hungary were on track to head into Tuesday\u2019s visit of Portugal with the carat of taking outright leadership of a condensed group available but second-half goals by Evan Ferguson and Adam Idah, the second three minutes into stoppage time, eked out a 2-2 draw.<\/p>\n
Liverpool star Szoboszlai had the starring role expected of him, delivering a pinpoint corner for Roland Sallai to extend the Maygars lead to 2-0 by the 15th minute.<\/p>\n
It was the striker\u2019s red card, however, that caused consternation in the visiting camp, leaving them stretched for the majority of the second half.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn’t see the red card situation,\u201d said Hungarian captain Szoboszlai. \u201cI don’t want to get into it although I’ve heard opinions.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope everyone has learned that you can’t react like that but I have to defend Sallai because he wouldn’t intentionally hurt anyone.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf that was a red card, then maybe we should look back at their first goal too.”<\/p>\n
That pointed remark referenced Ferguson\u2019s close-range finish to half the arrears four minutes into the second half.<\/p>\n
Referee Harm Osmers didn\u2019t have his decision to deem a challenge by Nathan Collins fair in the build-up overturned by VAR, much to the chagrin of Szoboszlai and Co.<\/p>\n
“I’m proud of the team that we started like this because we discussed that it was important,\u201d he said, citing their explosive two-goal blast.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first half was a dream start. If we had kept it that way, then the whole game would have been the same but we fought very well for a long time with one player less. There could be a stage over this campaign when that one point will be worth gold.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ireland manager Heimir Hallgr\u00edmsson dismissed his counterpart Marco Rossi\u2019s whining about the outcome.<\/p>\n
Both managers had spells on the sidelines questioning decisions of Osmers but the German official came in for particular flak by Rossi, who claimed the whistler allowed the contest to descend into a \u201cwrestling match\u201d.<\/p>\n
There certainly seemed to be a \u201cno-holds-barred\u201d approach taken on the basis of Ireland captain Nathan Collins having his shirt tugged in the box without a penalty being awarded.<\/p>\n
Conversely, he didn\u2019t hesitate to brandish a straight red card to Sallai just four minutes after Ferguson reduced the arrears. Hungary\u2019s first goalscorer, in his frustration at being outmuscled by Josh Cullen, recklessly snapped at the ankle of Dara O\u2019Shea.<\/p>\n
His petulance was costly. Validated by a VAR check, the Galatasaray attacker will miss Tuesday\u2019s meeting of the top two seeds in Budapest.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe referee probably started to think it was a wrestling match instead of a football match,\u201d said Italian Rossi, in-situ for the past seven years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will be really surprised if we have a referee like we did here. He killed us in every contact.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe decisions must be the same for both teams. For Ireland\u2019s first goal, there was a clear elbow by Nathan Collins on Barnabas Varga. Did you not see it? You are looking at me like I am saying stupid things.\u201d It only sounded stupid because, like the red card, VAR didn\u2019t overturn.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not happy with our player (Sallai) but he reacted to a clear foul,\u201d he complained.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a reaction to frustration. From the red card, we played with one less player for almost 45 minutes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s difficult. Especially against a team which puts high balls into the box and we had to defend.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hallgr\u00edmsson\u2019s usually succinct English eluded him slightly when pressed for a reaction to the moan.<\/p>\n
\u201cListen, if he\u2019s pissed, he\u2019s pissed!\u201d His take on the refereeing performance was through a different prism.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had 40 crosses in the match and there were a lot of fouls in the box that weren\u2019t checked by VAR – so we can complain as well,\u201d he outlined.<\/p>\n
\u201cHungary were kind of time-wasting from the second goal in the 15th minute, so he can\u2019t complain. They were throwing themselves down on the pitch, using up minutes whenever they could.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven though the referee gave Hungary a warning, he didn\u2019t do the same later on in the game, so he was inconsistent in that sense.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ireland\u2019s consistency is falling behind in games. Eight of their nine competitive games since Hallgr\u00edmsson\u2019s reign began against England 12 months ago entailed conceding first. They recovered against Finland and twice against Bulgaria to complete comeback wins before this turnaround salvaged a draw.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would be great to answer that question,\u201d he admitted. \u201cConceding after two minutes was a bit unlucky but we lost the duel. On a consistent basis, I need to look inside to see what I\u2019m doing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe manner we conceded was just sloppy. We lost a duel and conceded from a corner. I don\u2019t think conceding in the second minute has much to do with preparation. It happened against Bulgaria too.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of the players aren\u2019t switched on. It could be due to nerves, the importance of the match or because of the past.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ronnie Whelan surprisingly chose Caoimh\u00edn Kelleher as his man-of-the-match, just before the late, late leveller, but such was the pressure in the Hungarian box, Ireland\u2019s boss felt it should have rewarded to the other custodian.<\/p>\n
\u201cHungary\u2019s goalkeeper (D\u00e9nes Dibusz) was man of the match,\u201d declared the Ireland about Robbie Keane\u2019s Ferencv\u00e1ros stopper.<\/p>\n
Rossi, who has led the Magyars to the last two Euro finals, predicted from the outset that Portugal will top the group.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, the duel for second place \u2013 and entry into the World Cup playoffs in March \u2013 could be settled at the Pusk\u00e1s Ar\u00e9na on November 16. That\u2019s the rematch on the final day after both have faced the Portuguese and Armenians twice each.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis result leaves open anything in the group but if we lost 3-2 or won 1-0 it could still be open because we meet Ireland again in the last match,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hungary were on track to head into Tuesday\u2019s visit of Portugal with the carat of taking outright leadership…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49498,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[4488,9,10,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-49497","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-irish-examiner-instagram","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-breakingnews","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-featured-news","13":"tag-featurednews","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-ie","16":"tag-ireland","17":"tag-latest-news","18":"tag-latestnews","19":"tag-main-news","20":"tag-mainnews","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-top-stories","23":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}