A 93rd minute equalizer from Cork man Adam Idah rescued a point for the Republic Of Ireland at the Aviva Stadium last night, to keep their hopes alive of heading to America.
Goalscorers:
Ireland: Evan Ferguson [49′] Adam Idah (90+3′)
Hungary: Barnabas Varga (3′) Rolland Sallai (16′)
Information:
Attendance at the Aviva: 50,137
Sky Man of the match: Caoimhin Kelleher
My man of the match: Jake O’ Brien
Referee: Harm Osmer
Match Review:
There was certainly late drama in a sold out Aviva Stadium on Saturday night as the Boys in Green edged a dramatic draw with Hungary.Hungary opened the scoring very early with the Ireland backline being far too open as Varga of Fernavacòs scored for Hungary. This was shortly followed by a Sallai goal on the 16th minute as any hope of a result for Èire became more and more dismal. This goal was a poor set piece handled by Ireland as Liverpool’s Dominik Szobozlai took the corner and gave Sallai the ball to put into the net. I found Matt Doherty was very poor in the Defence for this set piece and could have did a lot better in handling the situation.
In my opinion Jake O’ Brien, whom came through the Cork City FC ranks had a great game. The Everton defender appeared consistent to me when he appeared on the flanks and he helped create chances in fairness to him throughout the game. Another man who came through the Leauge of Ireland ranks at Bohemians was Evan Ferguson (now at Roma), He hit the ball home in the second half to put the score at 2-1. Ryan Manning was also skilful in setting up the goal. Ireland began to fight from here on in despite struggling at times as Hungary also went down to 10 men with Sallai being sent off for a nasty pull on an Ireland shirt. There are reoorts that the Hungarian manager was “furious” over the decision by the Referee but in my opinion it was definitely a card. Adam Idah ensured the teams would share the points in the dieing seconds of the Match as the whistle blew at the score of 2-2. The goal will be a good confidence boost for Idah who left Celtic and joined Swansea after being in poor form of recent. Ogbene (formally of Limerick FC and Cork City) also featured in the game.
A draw is better than nothing. While Ireland were very poor at times especially in the first half, they certainly did well to get a draw and fought to come back from being 2-0 down. That being said that the side were poor at times, there was a lot of positives to be taken from the game. Caoimhin Kelleher made several decent saves between the posts and desereved to get the “Man of the Match” title. Jake O’ Brien,Ryan Manning, Jason Knight and Evan Ferguson also put in a good shift. Heimir seems to be hopeful the Country can qualify for the world cup next summer in the USA with a win next Tuesday away to Armenia almost essential for the side who will also have to face Portugal.
After the match Halgrimsson spoke to the media stating “I felt like we deserved all the three points.”,speaking at the post match press conference he said “But given that we conceded the two goals in the beginning and especially the manner they came, it was a sloppy, sloppy 2-0 loss and in such an important game you don’t want that. “We conceded two in the early stages, I was so unhappy with the first half. But listen, it’s not easy to come back from a 2-0 down at this level.”So that’s not easy and I give all the credit to the guys for the second half. The character they showed, the bravery and all the effort they put in, I give them a lot of credit for the second half.”
The Gaffer was overall content with how his side fought for a draw as he commented- “But listen, like I said, it’s not easy at this level to come back from 2-0 down against a team that’s 30 places higher than us in the FIFA ranking. That’s for sure. And we should take pride in what we did on the pitch, how we dominated the second half”.
The dream for Irish fans of another World Cup we haven’t seen in a while is still alive judging by the positives you can take from this match but there is a long road ahead for Heimar and his Army without a doubt. It can be argued that this current National squad couldn’t be compared with Jack Charlton and Martin O’ Neil’s squads but I think they are willing to fight and give this campaign a good run but qualification to a major tournament isn’t going to be easy.
Ireland will travel to face Armenia on Tuesday with the game having the early kick off of 5pm ( Irish Time). The U21’s also play as they face Andorra on Tuesday night in Tallaght Stadium.