“This is the first time I’ve cried in years.”
Troy Parrott’s puffy red eyes and trembling voice captured the elated disbelief of an entire nation. He had just completed a stunning hat-trick in the Republic of Ireland’s 3-2 victory away to Hungary on Sunday night, sealing it with a stoppage-time strike that tore the runners-up’s play-off place in Europe’s Group F away from opponents who needed only a draw to secure it.
The sight of Parrott buried beneath an ecstatic mountain of team-mates and coaching staff on the Budapest turf was utterly unthinkable a week ago.
After the ignominy of a 2-1 away defeat against Armenia in September — a team ranked 105th in the world then and beaten 9-1 by Portugal yesterday — Ireland needed a sequence of results few believed possible to keep their World Cup hopes alive.
What unfolded was one of the most dramatic, jaw-dropping and uplifting weeks in Irish football history.
On Thursday, a feverish home crowd roared them on to a 2-0 victory over Portugal, erupting with delight when the visitors’ superstar captain Cristiano Ronaldo was sent off for a petulant elbow on centre-back Dara O’Shea. Parrott hoovered up all their goals on that occasion too, but the week was about the collective, with a number of standout contributions across the pitch.
“This moment shouldn’t be about finding heroes; it should be this team, the spirit, this unity and hard work the guys showed,” said head coach Heimir Hallgrimsson after yesterday’s victory, which leaves Ireland just two wins in March’s play-offs away from a first World Cup appearance since 2002.
(Attila Kisbenedek/AFP via Getty Images)
The obvious mismatch in quality aside, the Portugal match played into the tactical strengths of this Irish side. With the physical trio of Nathan Collins, Dara O’Shea and Jake O’Brien marshalling a compact five-man defence, the speed and dynamism of Parrott and Chiedozie Ogbene up front, and Portugal’s vulnerability on the night to long balls, Halgrimsson’s defence-first, counter-attacking style came into its own.
The challenge in Budapest was that Ireland would — at least in spells — need to take the initiative. That had been their undoing against Armenia, who pounced on Ireland’s sloppy build-up and cut through them in transition. Halgrimsson made only one change, bringing in Jayson Molumby for Jack Taylor in midfield, and stuck with the same formation, but the approach was far more assertive than against Portugal: Ireland finished with 47 per cent possession, more than double Thursday’s share (23 per cent).
They rarely pressed high, but they were aggressive in denying Hungary time on the ball. Liverpool midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai — whose quality shone even more alongside an otherwise functional supporting cast — was composed, but his team-mates were repeatedly hurried into errors whenever Ireland stepped up.
In the example below, Scales and Finn Azaz spring forward to force an aimless long ball straight into Caoimhin Kelleher’s arms. Scales’ aggressive bursts out of left wing-back were a recurring feature of the first half. The one time that appetite for denying Hungary space disappeared was for their second goal, when Collins stood off Varga, allowing him to chest down and hammer a half-volley into the top-right corner.
In possession, Ireland had their spells of control, but it was the direct route that remained their most dependable weapon. Long balls into Parrott and Ogbene exposed Hungary’s back line, especially the sluggish Attila Szalai, who struggled to track their runs and conceded a penalty after a mistimed swipe at Ogbene, released by a pinpoint diagonal from O’Shea.
Until his unfortunate hamstring injury in the 51st minute, Ogbene was Ireland’s standout player. The move that caused his withdrawal showcased the connection between him and Parrott: Ogbene leapt to flick a Kelleher kick-out into Parrott’s path, burst after the return pass, only to pull up sharply before he could get there. Parrott threw his hands to his head in despair; a key attacking threat had been felled.
(David Balogh/Getty Images)
Ogbene made way for Adam Idah, and by the hour mark Halgrimsson had made the final roll of his dice. Debutant Johnny Kenny replaced Molumby, with Azaz dropping deeper to cover midfield, while Festy Ebosele came on for Seamus Coleman to restore some of the wide thrust lost when Ogbene went off.
As a playmaker, Azaz naturally left more space for Hungary to attack, but his quality from deep swung the game Ireland’s way when his neat clipped ball found Parrott, who equalised with a clever chip.
(Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile via Getty Images)
Hungary became increasingly nervous from then on. When the clock ticked past the five minutes initially added, hope was running out for Ireland, but Parrott refused to submit. Halgrimsson later praised his off-ball work, and that graft lit the fuse for the winning moment when he and Kenny tore over to the touchline and hounded Kerkez into a clearance straight back to Kelleher. The goalkeeper launched it into the box, Scales rose to flick it on, and Parrott prodded it home with the base of his foot.
Kelleher’s distribution and shot-stopping has been exceptional, and before Parrott seized the spotlight he had been Ireland’s best performer in the campaign. He faced 34 shots worth 11.3 expected goals on target (xGOT) but conceded only seven.
Through the haze of Sunday’s euphoria, it’s easy to forget Ireland still have two playoff games to navigate but belief will now flood through the side. Halgrimsson has helped drag that out of the group, not least with his inspired decision to bring Coleman back in. Despite only 217 Premier League minutes since the start of last season, Coleman has looked sharp, with his dogged displays and relentless on-field leadership constantly motivating the younger heads around him.
“We’re going to qualify” was Halgrimsson’s bullish declaration at the outset of the campaign, words that made Irish fans — conditioned to be reflexively fatalistic — distinctly uneasy. Now he may have to adopt the opposite tone, trying to rein in the frenzied expectation swirling after this delirious week. Good luck with that.