{"id":49937,"date":"2025-09-07T23:51:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T23:51:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/49937\/"},"modified":"2025-09-07T23:51:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T23:51:12","slug":"irelands-second-half-siege-of-hungary-felt-like-something-from-jack-charlton-era-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/49937\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland\u2019s second-half siege of Hungary felt like something from Jack Charlton era \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the end, Ireland<\/a> were like a man who had carelessly shot himself in the face \u2013 twice \u2013 but somehow lived to tell the tale. Is he happy? In a way, no. But in a way, yes. <\/p>\n

Only a fool would dismiss the debacle of the first 15 minutes. The hot sting of embarrassment was multiplied by the fact that we had spent all week promising ourselves we would not make the kind of mistakes we immediately proceeded to make.<\/p>\n

But only the most determinedly miserable could refuse to be consoled by a rousing second-half fightback<\/a> culminating in a late equaliser that at least keeps Ireland\u2019s campaign alive beyond the first game. Sad as it is to admit, that is actual progress.<\/p>\n

At full-time, Ireland\u2019s players were not celebrating, but many of Hungary\u2019s were not even standing. Their captain, Dominik Szoboszlai, had said before the match that a point in Dublin<\/a> would be like \u201cstriking gold\u201d. At the final whistle, he lay down on his back with his hands over his face. He looked like somebody who had just crawled out of a car crash. <\/p>\n

He stayed there, motionless, until his ex-Liverpool<\/a> team-mate Caoimhin Kelleher arrived at a stroll from the other end of the pitch to pull him to his feet and give him a hug. <\/p>\n

Hungary coach Marco Rossi didn\u2019t look like he had struck gold afterwards, as he raged about a referee who had allowed the game to degenerate into a \u2018wrestling match\u2019. Rossi promised, somewhat menacingly, that the referee in Budapest would be quite different.<\/p>\n

No doubt the German referee had been a key figure in the game, but Hungary had nobody to blame but themselves. The 52nd-minute red card for Roland Sallai was fully warranted. The Hungarian winger reacted angrily to the referee\u2019s refusal to give him a free kick he thought he deserved, then launched an instant revenge attack on the Achilles\u2019 tendon of Dara O\u2019Shea.<\/p>\n

If the referee seemed to whip out that red card with a certain enthusiasm, maybe it\u2019s possible that he had become irritated by the systematic gamesmanship Hungary engaged in from the opening minutes \u2013 moaning, simulation and timewasting. Referees are human too. <\/p>\n

Likewise, Sallai\u2019s head-loss reflected Hungary\u2019s wider loss of control of a match that had already shifted Ireland\u2019s way. The momentum shift started when Evan Ferguson followed up his powerful run and shot in first-half injury time with the scrambling close-range finish that cut Hungary\u2019s lead in half. <\/p>\n

\"EvanEvan Ferguson scores Ireland’s first goal on Saturday, reducing Hungary’s lead to 2-1. Photograph: Damien Eagers\/PA Wire <\/p>\n

Clearly the expulsion of Hungary\u2019s main counter-attacking threat completely changed the game. The visitors were now a bird with a broken wing. The only question was whether Ireland could finish them before they ran out of time. <\/p>\n

The siege that followed felt almost like time travel, as though the Aviva was staging some spectacular Jurassic Park recreation of Charltonball for those too young to have experienced it the first time around. The crowd roared while an outer perimeter of Ireland players launched balls like mortar bombs into the box, where big men crashed desperately into each other as they fought for the bounces and knockdowns. \u201cKilling us in every contact\u201d, in Rossi\u2019s words. <\/p>\n

Ireland had 40 crosses, according to manager Heimir Hallgr\u00edmsson<\/a>. Sadly, about 35 of them were quite bad. Too many times the ball looped in high and slow rather than fizzing in a destructive arc. When Jake O\u2019Brien suddenly whipped over a couple of good hard deliveries from the right, the players in the middle seemed surprised and forgot to attack the ball. <\/p>\n

Those long desperate minutes of striving were punctuated by occasional jolting seconds of horror when Ireland lost control. In these moments, the bird with a broken wing somehow flapped threateningly through their defensive disarray. Ireland had Kelleher to thank for keeping them alive. <\/p>\n

Hallgr\u00edmsson waited more than 10 minutes after the red card to make his first two substitutions and it was 78 minutes before Ireland\u2019s best dribbler, Mikey Johnston, came into a game that seemed to be crying out for his particular skillset.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Ireland show great character but Hallgr\u00edmsson\u2019s principles weren\u2019t on show in the opening 15 minutesOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Johnston helped create the equaliser with a rare flash of composure under pressure. A fraction of a delay on the edge of the box bought an extra half-second for Ryan Manning to measure his cross. As Evan Ferguson dragged Attila Szalai to the near post, Adam Idah<\/a> made the right run at the right time to arrive unmarked. <\/p>\n

\"AdamAdam Idah heads home Ireland’s injury-time equaliser against Hungary in Saturday night’s World Cup qualifier at the Aviva Stadium. Photograph: Ryan Byrne\/Inpho <\/p>\n

So Ireland live to fight another day, but what a night it might have been if they\u2019d lived up to their own billing from the start.<\/p>\n

Two weeks ago, Hallgr\u00edmsson spelled out the core principles he wants the team to live by so that \u201cat least you can criticise us on what we\u2019re trying to do\u201d. Defining the terms of success in such a specific and limited way has the advantage of neutralising certain kinds of criticism in advance, but it also makes it more embarrassing when the team fails on precisely those limited terms. <\/p>\n

A team that was supposed to embody the virtues of physicality, organisation, focus and excellence on set-pieces was instead weak, sloppy, dozy and asleep on the only set-piece they had to defend in the game. <\/p>\n

Afterwards, the Ireland manager refused to single out individuals for blame, but everyone had seen that the team\u2019s most-experienced player, Matt Doherty, was central to the early chaos.<\/p>\n

All week, Ireland\u2019s coaching staff had warned that the space in front of Ireland\u2019s back four was the critical danger area. Doherty sent a clearing header directly into that killing zone, but rather than react with urgency, he moved back towards the edge of the box at a gentle jog, ensuring Barnabas Varga was onside to receive Callum Styles\u2019 quick forward pass. <\/p>\n

Finn Azaz and Josh Cullen had given Styles too much room to play that ball and Nathan Collins had started the whole Hungarian move with a 15-yard pass out of play. Hallgr\u00edmsson lamented lost duels, but forgetting to push up with your defensive line is the kind of mistake Doherty should not still be making at 33.<\/p>\n

Doherty was dawdling again 15 minutes later, when a harmless ball from the back bounced in behind Ireland\u2019s defence. The left-back was unable to make up his mind about what to do with it and Bendeguz Bolla closed him down and forced a corner. <\/p>\n

\"RolandRoland Sallai rises highest to score Hungary’s second goal. Photograph: Ryan Byrne\/Inpho <\/p>\n

The Irish crowd booed Szoboszlai as he sauntered over to take it, already happily wasting time. Hungary\u2019s captain responded with a fine delivery to the near post. Sallai ran towards the ball and powered it across Kelleher with a soaring header. But would Sallai have looked such a lord of the air in that moment if any Irish defender had tried to put in a meaningful challenge? <\/p>\n

Collins had talked during the week about how Hallgrimsson \u201cmakes everything as easy as possible for us players to learn about and to get behind\u201d. But there\u2019s an irreducible simplicity about a corner kick to the near post. You can\u2019t break the situation down any further into manageable tasks. You just have to get to the ball ahead of the other guy. Instead, Collins was passive, as Doherty had been passive; passive spectators of the game, like Ireland were going to be passive spectators of the 2026 World Cup. <\/p>\n

At least that\u2019s how it felt in that moment, watching the almost disbelieving joy of the celebrating Hungarians. And yet, the fightback that ensued showed that the Irish players had not been sleeping through every one of Hallgr\u00edmsson\u2019s team talks. <\/p>\n

The first goal came from a set-piece, Manning surprised the keeper with a wicked near-post shot when everyone expected a cross and Collins this time attacked a high ball with purpose. The physicality was there, the urgency, the direct attacks, the running, the fight. <\/p>\n

After dropping two points at home, can Ireland still hope for second place? The next four matches are about getting six points from Armenia and trying to lay a glove on Portugal, but thankfully, Hungary lack the power and quality of Serbia and Greece, Ireland\u2019s nearest rivals in the last two qualifying groups. We lost in Belgrade and in Athens, but it\u2019s possible to imagine us going to Budapest in November and getting the result we need. It is, of course, crucial that we don\u2019t begin the duel by shooting ourselves in the face.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the end, Ireland were like a man who had carelessly shot himself in the face \u2013 twice…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49938,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[21081,9,10,18,16756,13,14,6,17065,19,17,27959,11,12,15,16,36849,36850,5,6634,7,8,35350],"class_list":{"0":"post-49937","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-adam-idah","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-breakingnews","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-evan-ferguson","13":"tag-featured-news","14":"tag-featurednews","15":"tag-headlines","16":"tag-heimir-hallgrimsson","17":"tag-ie","18":"tag-ireland","19":"tag-ken-early","20":"tag-latest-news","21":"tag-latestnews","22":"tag-main-news","23":"tag-mainnews","24":"tag-matt-doherty","25":"tag-nathan-collins","26":"tag-news","27":"tag-republic-of-ireland-mnt","28":"tag-top-stories","29":"tag-topstories","30":"tag-world-cup"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49937","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=49937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49937\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}