John O’Shea takes charge of his third game as Republic of Ireland interim manager tomorrow night at the Aviva stadium. The Irish will take on a Hungary side who have qualified for this summer’s European Championship on a 14 game unbeaten streak and will look to make it 15 at Lansdowne Road.
O’Shea’s side will come into the game damaged by injuries with Chiedozie Ogbene, Evan Ferguson, Gavin Bazunu, Nathan Collins, Andrew Omobamidele and Festy Ebosele all missing after featuring for Ireland in March. Ireland will look to build on two solid defensive performances from the Belgium and Switzerland games but scoring the first goal of the John O’Shea era being the main objective.
But that will be a lot easier said than done as this Hungary side is very strong with Marco Rossi doing a brilliant job of maximising what is quite a limited squad finishing top of their Euros qualifying group unbeaten, picking up 18 points in 8 games.
One thing Ireland can take as a source of hope is that the Hungarians only picked up 6 points out of a possible 12 away from home in qualifying.
The Boys in Green have faced Hungary 12 times, first facing off in 1934 winning 2, drawing 6 and losing 4 although the last 5 times both sides have faced off Ireland have won 2 with the other 3 ending in scoreless draws.
The two sides are yet to face off at the Aviva Stadium with tomorrow’s fixture set to be a humdinger.
- Team News
Republic of Ireland
Nottingham Forest defender Andrew Omobamidele has been ruled out of tomorrow’s fixture after picking up a hamstring injury in training.
Ireland under 21 star Bosun Lawal has stepped up to the matchday squad to take Omobamidele’s place after impressing in training this last week.
Troy Parrott joined up with the squad today after scoring a hat-trick yesterday for Excelsior but seems unlikely to feature after sitting out of today’s training session.
Bosun Lawal has been promoted to the Ireland senior squad for the Hungary match!🇮🇪
— Rep of Ireland Player Tracker (@reptracker) June 3, 2024
Andrew Omobamidele has been ruled out through injury and Bosun will take his place before joining the 21’s after.
Well done Bosun, what a player💚 pic.twitter.com/72iZ5HFo5D
Hungary
The Hungarians seem to have a lot more luck on the injury front with Marco Rossi expected to have a fully fit squad to pick from. Rossi is expected to rotate heavily over the two warm up games before the Euros.
- Likely Lineups
Republic of Ireland
Kelleher, Coleman, O’Shea, Duffy, Scales, Brady, Cullen, Smallbone, Szmodics, Idah, Johnston
Hungary
Gulacsi, Balogh, Lang, Szalai, Nego, Nagy, Schafer, Kerkez, Sallai, Szoboszlai, Varga
- Key Players
Republic of Ireland – Sammie Szmodics
After scoring 33 goals in all competitions for Blackburn Rovers this season will head into the game with his confidence at an all time high. Tuesday’s fixture will be Szmodics third cap in an Irish jersey and he will be desperate to bring his goalscoring run at club level into international football and score his first goal in green.
Hungary – Dominik Szoboszlai
The £60 million man is going to be Hungary’s go to man in Dublin and throughout the European Championship after an impressive season at Liverpool. The midfielder featured 45 times for The Reds this season, scoring seven and assisting four times. Szoboszlai has been Hungary’s main man for years picking up 40 caps and scoring 12 times.
- More Information
Kick off is at 7:45 tomorrow at the Aviva Stadium with it being shown live on Premier Sports 1.
If you can’t make the game make sure to check out the pre and post match show with myself and Dave, live from the Aviva stadium on the Lansdowne Road Youtube channel.