Republic of Ireland v Hungary; Aviva Stadium, 7.45pm – Live RTÉ 2
If international match attendances are any indication, public interest in the Republic of Ireland teams are dwindling.
In March, 38,128 attended the 0-0 draw with Belgium before 35,742 came out for the 1-0 loss to Switzerland at the Aviva Stadium. The association hope that around 37,000 will come tonight as Ireland face an unbeaten Hungary but this figure factors in all 24,000 season ticket holders showing up.
In April, 32,742 paid to see England beat Katie McCabe’s side 2-0. Last Friday only 22,868, mostly young girls, returned to the Aviva for Sweden’s 3-0 victory but that’s a lot to do with the FAI marketing spend focusing on the men’s team.
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This moment seems as far from the glory days of Stuttgart in 1988 as anyone could have imagined.
In stark contrast, Hungary are on the cusp of reliving the Magical Magyars’ achievements of the 1950s, when Ferenc Puskás led them to Olympic gold before a controversial loss to West Germany in the 1954 World Cup final.
Nowadays, in Dominik Szoboszlai, their manager Marco Rossi has a 23-year-old Liverpool midfielder to build his team around. The imminent Euros offers Szoboszlai the perfect stage to back up a fantastic record of 12 goals from 40 caps.
“Szoboszlai is my neighbour in Liverpool,” said Seamus Coleman. “He is a very good player, a very strong player and we’ve done our homework on him. I’ve played against [Milos Kerkez] the left back at Bournemouth as well; a very attacking full back who is difficult to play against. But 14 games unbeaten means they have quality all over the pitch.”
In 20 outings under Rossi, dating back two years, Hungary only lost to Italy (twice) while beating England (twice), Germany and Serbia (twice) to secure their place in Cologne and Stuttgart later this month.
After dealing with a country ranked 60th in the world, and hosting Israel in Debrecen on Saturday, Hungary open their European tournament against Switzerland before facing the hosts and Scotland in the city that introduced Irish football to the world.
Meanwhile, the FAI continue their policy of supplying no updates on the seven-month search to replace Stephen Kenny, with these games against Hungary and in Portugal next Tuesday being framed as auditions for interim head coach John O’Shea.
“I think everyone, including myself, the staff, the players, would like clarity on it,” said O’Shea before turning to his captain Seamus Coleman to invoke the Donegal GAA mantra about Jim McGuinness.
“We want to beat Hungary, we want to get the Irish team winning again, it’s as simple as that. Get the mindset right in terms of winning the games at home especially, that’s the big thing, because if you know you are back winning matches, a Donegal man has that saying, I think [he turns to Coleman], ‘Jimmy’s winning matches.’ So that’s the big thing for me. We’ve got to get winning matches.”
O’Shea temporarily inherits a squad that has not beaten a nation of note since Scotland in June 2022. That same month, two years ago, Ireland lost vital Nations League ties to Armenia and Ukraine while Kenny’s tenure hit rock bottom last summer with defeat to Greece in Athens.
Seemingly, Irish players embroiled in the EFL Championship’s 46-game run were unable to rediscover the necessary conditioning to perform in June, a month after their club season concludes.
“That won’t be an excuse for us – the team will be more than ready to cause Hungary problems,” O’Shea said of this game.
Rossi is expected to name a strong side but, unfortunately, most of Ireland’s Premier League players – Evan Ferguson, Chiedozie Ogbene, Gavin Bazunu, Nathan Collins and Andrew Omobamidele – are unavailable.
There are viable alternatives. When O’Shea took charge for the March friendlies, a glaring issue was converting chances into goals. Tom Cannon’s promotion to the senior squad, after the FAI fended off interest from England under-21 manager Lee Carsley for the Leicester City striker’s services, could nudge Ireland over the line.
Troy Parrott is available despite his hat-trick for Excelsior in the Dutch relegation play-offs on Sunday. The same goes for Josh Cullen, fresh from his wedding, and Adam Idah after a loan stint at Celtic yielded nine goals in 19 appearances.
Bosun Lawal and Jake O’Brien could also win first caps, with Lawal proving on loan from Celtic to Fleetwood Town that he is capable of covering for Cullen in midfield.
“Bosun is obviously a strong lad but we have seen the delicate touches from him as well,” O’Shea observed. “He can glide past players as well. He did a couple of things in training yesterday where he was stopping runs, matching runs, whether it was fast centre forwards, fast wingers, fast 10s, they struggled to get past him.
“He is really exciting but he has to keep developing too and hopefully he has good experience at Fleetwood and he will go back and see what happens at Celtic. Hopefully we will have a chance to see him tomorrow. You never know.”
Ireland (possible): Kelleher (Liverpool); Coleman (Everton), O’Shea (Burnley), O’Brien (Lyon), Scales (Celtic), Brady (Preston North End); Smallbone (Southampton), Knight (Bristol City); Szmodics (Blackburn Rovers), Idah (Celtic), Johnston (West Bromwich Albion, on loan from Celtic).
Hungary (possible): Gulácsi (RB Leipzig); Szalai (SC Freiburg), Orbán (RB Leipzig), Lang (Omonia Nicosia); Nego (Le Harve), Nagy (Spezia Calcio), Schäfer (Union Berlin), Kerkez (Bournemouth); Szoboszlai (Liverpool), Varga (Ferencvárosi TC), Sallai (SC Freiburg).
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