Hungary to Win
Over 1.5 Goals
Both Teams to Score: No
Dominik Szoboszlai to have a 1 or more Shots on Target
Adam Idah to Commit 2 or more Fouls
All prices are bang up to date with our snazzy widgets, while odds in copy are accurate at time of publishing but subject to change.
Ireland v Hungary
International friendly match at the Aviva Stadium, Dublin
TV: Premier Sports, RTE 2, Tuesday, 7:45pm
There are more and more shouts for John O’Shea to land the Irish job on a permanent basis. That’s all internal noise, too, none of it from outside the camp.
But sure they backed Stephen Kenny until the end, so that’s a positive that the FAI, when they eventually find someone willing to listen to them over a Zoom interview for role, won’t be steered by dressing room politics. Did anyone see he mentioned bringing back James McClean?
Hungary presents an odd test for Ireland in so much as they’re very similar to ourselves, very underfunded. But they’ve picked themselves up and qualified from a group in which we’d have finished fourth due to failing to beat Lithuania and Bulgaria at home. So, that begs the question: why in God’s name are we similarly priced to win this game of football, friendly or no friendly?
This is a team that have scored at least twice in all bar one of their Euro 2024 qualifying fixtures. Given the only side Ireland scored two or more against in their last eleven games is Gibraltar, it’s fair to suggest that Hungary should be shorter favourites.
So let’s cut through some any nationalistic pride and try to capitalise on our own misery.
Hungary to Win
O’Shea is under no pressure whatsoever to get a result for multiple reasons. The first is that he’s the interim boss, and that’s been made crystal clear.The second is that, even if he did want the job, he knows he’ll only be getting it by default, and there’s nothing he can do in the meantime to impact that.
Hungary will come in here, vying to show what they can do ahead of their opening group games in a few weeks.
Ireland will be going through the motions; understand the existential pain of prolonging our national dance with sub-mediocrity.
Over 1.5 Goals
I should probably tie this in with the third selection to give a slightly better picture, but basically Hungary have an incredibly diverse group of attacking players who can do damage in multiple ways.
They also change their approach play fairly sharply in games if its not working. That means that if it’s not happening, their manager won’t continue to encourage the same nonsense, nor make like-for-like changes. Imagine that.
Both Teams to Score: No
Adam Idah, Sammie Szmodics, and Troy Parrott have all had incredible goal-scoring seasons. Now, Parrot likely won’t play because he’s fresh off Dutch heartbreak with Excelsior, but even still, none of that has mattered in the past.
We’ve had players go through rich runs of form and had it amount to nothing. This will be more of the same.
Dominik Szoboszlai to have 1 or more Shots on Target
Ireland’s biggest weakness under Stephen Kenny was the nonexistent ability to close down the ball on the edge of their area. Yes, we can crowd your number nine, but as soon as he’s accounted for, we’re happy to drop ten yards off the ball and invite a shot.
Liverpool’s Dominik Szoboszlai has twelve goals from forty international games. And most of them have come against far greater opposition than this lot.
Adam Idah to Commit 2 or more Fouls
It’s not like he needed it, but playing in about ten Old Firm games in the last six weeks would make you a tad over-zealous.
Already a bit of a hothead when closing down defenders in possession, Adam Idah could be wound up to eleven for this.
Hungary to Win
Over 1.5 Goals
Both Teams to Score, No
Dominik Szoboszlai to have a 1 or more Shots on Target
Adam Idah to Commit 2 or more Fouls
All prices are bang up to date with our snazzy widgets, while odds in copy are accurate at time of publishing but subject to change.
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