Hungary 2 – 3 Ireland
Third time lucky for Hungary from a corner and a disastrous start for Republic of Ireland in this Uefa Group F of the World Cup Qualifiers.
With barely 3 minutes gone Dominik Szoboszlai plays a quick short corner with Milos Kerkez and gets it back before whipping it in for Daniel Lukacs, who glances home from close range. But why that wasn’t given offside will be a mystery.
There was a VAR check for offside, but the goal stands and it’s a mountain to climb already for the visitors, who look rattled.
But they have Everton’s Jake O’Brien and Seamus Coleman forming the right flank against the Majestirial Magyars!
And Troy Parrott gave the Magyar Minder no chance whatsoever from the penalty spot in what was a brilliant response from Ireland to get it back to level terms inside 20 minutes after Ogbene looked a little bit fortunate to be given a penalty.
But a fantastic strike by Barnabas Varga to put Hungary back in front! Milos Kerkez fires a cross into the striker, who, with time and space, chests it down outside the box and smashes it first time into the top corner.
Jake O’Brien on the stretch came very close to another equalizer for Ireland in added time before the break, but it skimmed off the outside of the angle.
A brilliant chipped finish from Adam Idah looked to have got the equalizer but he was marginally offside.
A bit disappointing for Evertonians to see Jake O’Brien fail to come out for the second half. With corners being a key part of this game, his height will surely be missed.
And it never rains… Ogbene clutching his hamstring and going to ground after trying to chase down a clever through ball from Parrott.
Coleman withdrawn on the hour mark. And it would eventually be Troy Parrott who got the Irish level again with 10 minutes left, running on to a smart ball over the top and deftly chipping it over the advancing goalkeeper.
But time was ticking away and the Irish needed a win to preserve thier World Cup campaign and it was past the added 5 minutes at the ened when Troy Parrott saw a chance and strode in to touch a bouncing ball past the Hungarian keeper and stun the home crowd into silence.
In other qualifiers today, England beat Albania 2 – 0 with Thomas Tuchel denying Pickford the chance to enhance his already impressive clean sheet record for England, by selecting Henderson in goal.