Unbeaten Streak of the National Football Team Broken

The Hungarian national football team, preparing for the start of the UEFA Euro 2024 next week, suffered a 2-1 defeat to Ireland in a friendly match in Dublin.

Although Marco Rossi’s team dominated the game throughout, the home side took an unexpected lead in the 36th minute, but soon afterwards Ádám Lang equalized. Troy Parrott’s goal at the end of the second-half ended the national team’s unbeaten run after 14 meetings.

The Hungarians will play their second preparation match against Israel in Debrecen (eastern Hungary) on Saturday.

During the match in Dublin, the home side’s attacking play posed no threat to Péter Gulácsi’s goal until the 36th minute. However, Ireland’s joy was short-lived, as Lang, playing in his 68th national team match – 29 in a row – quickly equalized.

Both national head coaches made double substitutions for the second half, but the game remained the same: the Hungarians dominated and the Irish only managed to lead the attack in isolated chances. As time went on, the Hungarian dominance started to disappear and the game became fragmented due to the many substitutions. Just when it looked as if the national team would have to settle for a draw, Troy Parrott scored in the 92nd minute.

“I cannot be satisfied with the result, but we would not have been satisfied with a draw either, because we had a lot of chances. We did not deserve to lose, Ireland had only two chances, but scored from both,” said head coach Rossi after the game.

“Even though we had a 14-match unbeaten streak, we knew we were neither England nor Germany, thus this good run was no pressure on the team. Nothing serious happened today because the attitude of the squad was right,” highlighted Rossi. He cited the physical problems of Loïc Nego, Ádám Lang, and Márton Dárdai, the latter of whom he could not replace because he had used all six of his substitutes.

The performance of captain Dominik Szoboszlai was rated as average by the Italian head coach, who said the Liverpool player did some good things but had some misplaced passes.

Rossi’s colleague John O’Shea noted that it was a fantastic feeling to lead his country to victory for the first time. He added that the fact that some of his players had not played for three weeks added to the value of the win. He stressed that the Irish team had improved compared to the two meetings in March.

Via MTI; Featured image via MTI/Illyés Tibor