Irish face first hurdle in push for World Cup.

Ireland take their first steps towards the World Cup in North America next summer, with a testing opener against Hungary at the Aviva tonight, followed up by a long trek to the Caucasus to face Armenia on Tuesday.

Heimir Hallgrímsson and the Boys in Green have been dealt a difficult group to get out of, with top-seeds and former European Champions Portugal making up the sides in Group F. One side automatically qualifies for the World Cup, while the second-place team makes it into the playoffs.

With such an unenvious task, Hallgrímsson was still in optimistic form last week in his press conferences, when he adamantly insisted that he will lead Ireland to the 2026 finals.

Early opportunity

There will be concerns of course. Ireland have not exactly lit up the international stage for some time, but Hallgrímsson and the Irish know that they will likely be battling with the Hungarians for second place in the group, so facing the Magyars in the very first game at home has the opportunity of maybe catching the central Europeans cold in the opener, with the advantage of it being on our own turf. A good result tonight and an expected win (maybe a bit presumptive) against Armenia on Tuesday would set us well on our way. And if Ireland should win tonight, it will have the added significance of putting pressure on Hungary for their subsequent games.

Indeed, Ireland’s record against Hungary is not that bad. They last beat us way back in 1969 and have not got the better of Ireland in six subsequent meetings. Three of those were draws, the other three Irish wins, including our last meeting with them in the friendly early last summer, when the Irish saw them off with a spirited 2-1 victory, in what was probably Hallgrímsson most impressive win since taking charge.

Our last competitive win against the Hungarians was in the 1989 qualifiers for the 1990 World Cup, when the Irish drew away and won 2-0 in Lansdowne Road. Admittedly, that Irish team was a far more talented than the current iteration. But arguably that Hungarian side was better than their current squad too.

Dominik danger

The fly in the ointment of that theory is Dominik Szoboszlai. The Liverpool attacking midfielder (come full back) for Liverpool will be well known to Irish fans, not only for seeing him play against Ireland last summer. But probably more so for what he has achieved with the Merseysiders. Szoboszlai comes into the game in probably the hottest form you could hope from a player, after two man-of-the-match performances for Liverpool, out of position from his comfort zone.

Then there is that goal. With out doubt, his magical strike against Arsenal last Sunday was the difference between the sides, in a game of tactical attrition, up to the point he sailed the ball over the Gunners’ wall and past the despairing grasp of keeper David Reya from all of 32-yards out.

Irish Liverpool fans were no doubt delighted with the wonderous worldie winner against the Gunners, but it was also a stark warning to Ireland of the threat he now poses for our defence. It is not his first time pulling off such a feat. Two years ago, he scored almost an identical goal from the same area of the pitch for Hungary against Bulgaria.

The hope for Ireland is that he will not get the opportunity to recreate a similar free kick again at the Aviva tonight. Ireland will have to be disciplined in their defensive duties and not give away free kicks in dangerous areas but that’s a significant part of the pitch when it comes to Szoboszlai. A consolation for Ireland is that, in our last meeting with Hungary, ‘we’ did pretty well in closing him down, denying him even a shot on target. Hungary don’t have the same quality of players that Liverpool possess, so he will not get the same quality of supply. Nevertheless, it was a great effort to denying their best player a shot on goal, even if it was just a friendly.

Irish attack

At the other end of the field, we will be interested to see how Evan Ferguson will perform, fresh from his well-publicised and successful start to the season with Roma in Serie A. Thankfully, the young Dubliner looks to be in a good place after a couple of seasons hit by injury at Brighton. With Troy Parrott’s unfortunate injury with AZ Alkmaar. It should free-up a chance for Cork’s Adam Idah, who moved from Celtic to Swansea during the week. And it was Idah who opened the scoring against Hungary when they were last in town.

Along with Caoimhín Kelleher, as well as centre back Jake O’Brien, Cork will be well represented tonight with Chiedozie Ogbene hopefully getting a run too after his own long run of injuries.

The trek to the New World starts tonight in Dublin