After waiting a decade to return to a leading tournament, another 20 minutes was merely a minor irritation for Ireland. Their final match before the European Championship was delayed last night after a spectacular electrical storm coincided with torrential rain in Budapest and while the performance left Giovanni Trapattoni in a thunderous mood, they will have arrived in Poland this morning full of belief.
Hungary provided Ireland with a vigorous challenge, as did the conditions, and there is still material for an unimpressed Trapattoni to work with, yet they are now unbeaten in their last 14 matches, their most productive sequence for more than a decade.
Ireland remain obdurate rather than overwhelming opponents, eager to defend and press forward when they can, but nobody can deny that the system is productive. That, in turn, will give Slaven Bilic something to consider. The coach of Croatia, Ireland’s first opponents in group C, was present to see a display that grew more effusive as the evening matured, with Jonathan Walters and Simon Cox both mustering useful opportunities.
“I saw nothing new,” Bilic said. “It’s an unbelievably competitive team, very solid. They play very simple football. They don’t take a lot of risks, but they are still dangerous with four really good forwards, two strikers and two wide men who are very quick. They’re not conceding goals and you can’t create many chances against them.”
With the Hungarians tiring, Walters missed with a free header late on and if there were episodes that caused irritation for Trapattoni, and, indeed, alarm, when Stephen Hunt hacked a shot from Imre Szabics from the goalline, there were compensations, too. That included the involvement of John O’Shea and Shay Given, who are in the team Trapattoni named to face Croatia on Sunday night.
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The manager tinkered with that stance afterwards, suggesting that he might now play a five-man midfield against Bilic’s team after seeing his own players struggle to pick up Hungary’s forwards. “Are you blind or did you see it?” he asked. “We have to review this game and see what happened. We have to decide what to do and that might mean one more in midfield.
“I have to look at what happened this evening and it might be my duty to change, even though it would be a great sacrifice to play with only one striker. I said before that the players who qualified deserved to start again, but we could have lost this game 2-0 or 3-0. We must show the players where we went wrong. They must understand why we had problems.”
Ireland were not without threat, yet the final pass was often imprecise and their forays forward left holes at the back, with Stephen Ward offered little protection at left back. Trapattoni was not fond of that, although greater satisfaction could be taken when O’Shea headed on to the roof of the net from Damien Duff’s cross and an effort from Robbie Keane struck Adam Bogdan, of Bolton Wanderers, in the chest.
Hungary beat Czech Republic 2-1 in their previous friendly and posed difficulties for the Irish. They found Balazs Dzsudzsak, in particular, hard to contain, in midfield.
Given, who made one fabulous save from Dzsudzsak, was substituted at half-time, but both he and O’Shea demonstrated their fitness after recent injuries. Other changes followed, as Trapattoni examined his options and Walters, who came on for Kevin Doyle, brought exuberance up front, shooting twice in short succession. “We have had a little bit of luck,” Trapattoni said, but Ireland will take it.
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Hungary (4-2-3-1): A Bogdan — J Varga, N Meszaros, Z Korcsmar, P Halmosi (sub: T Kadar, 70min) — V Koman, A Pinter (sub: V Vaczak, 46) — A Gyurcso (sub: T Koltai, 87), P Szakaly (sub: I Szabics. 66), B Dzsudtsak — A Szalai (sub: K Nemeth, 68). Substitutes not used: G Kiraly, A Debreceni. Booked: Korcsmar.
Ireland (4-4-2): S Given (sub: K Westwood, 46) — J O’Shea, R Dunne, S St Ledger, S Ward — D Duff (sub: S Hunt, 63) K Andrews (sub: D Gibson, 66), G Whelan (sub: P Green, 85), A McGeady — R Keane (sub: S Cox, 61), K Doyle (sub: J Walters, 46). Substitutes not used: S Kelly, D O’Dea, S Long. Booked: Ward.
Referee: K Hansen (Denmark).