FOOTBALL: Northern Ireland fall to defeat at home to Hungary

Northern Ireland 0 Hungary 1

Niall McGinn after his error led to Hungary's goal

Author: Gareth McCullough at the National Stadium at Windsor Park Published 29th Mar 2022

Northern Ireland fell to defeat at Windsor Park in a relatively dour affair that only sprang to life in the closing moments.

Manager Ian Baraclough gave a debut to Fleetwood Town midfielder Paddy Lane, but otherwise it was a case of plenty of familiar faces in the starting line-up. Jonny Evans missed out due to a knock, while Stuart Dallas began on the bench.

In what was a pretty even affair, one huge error early in the second half saw the only goal of the game as Niall McGinn's weak backpass was gobbled up and slotted home by Roland Sallai.

And it took the hosts until the final few minutes to realise they were behind.

They rallied and piled on the pressure, with substitutes George Saville, Trai Hume and Dion Charles all forcing stops out of Hungary keeper Denes Dibusz.

Northern Ireland almost went in front on 11 minutes with an opportunistic effort from skipper Steven Davis.

He seized on a loose ball before trying an audacious effort with the outside of his boot from 18 yards. With Hungary goalkeeper Denes Dibusz beaten, Davis and a packed Windsor Park could only look on in despair as it hits the base of the left hand post before going wide

Nine minutes later, a sweeping move the length of the pitch saw Niall McGinn feed Gavin Whyte and the forward showed his trademark pace to burst into the box, but his final touch allowed Hungary keeper Denes Dibusz to smother.

After Paddy McNair blazed wildly over the bar from just outside the box on 32, Hungary had their first sight of goal two minutes later, but Bailey Peacock-Farrell was able to get down to comfortably hold Sallai's 20-yarder

The best chances of the home for the hosts arrived just five minutes before the break and it probably should have been taken.

A Josh Magennis flick-on put Whyte in, he unselfishly squared it to McGinn. But his volley took a nick off a defender before being tipped wide by the keeper.

Northern Ireland Captain Steven Davis after his first half effort came back off the outside of the post.

Dion Charles came on in place of the ineffective Magennis at the interval and he almost made an instant impact.

Within a minute, he went through on goal before a tangle with a defender saw the Bolton striker hit the deck and go down...but, despite the protests, penalty appeals were waved away.

Then came the suckerpunch for Baraclough's men four minutes before the hour as Marco Rossi's visitors took the lead.

It was all of Northern Ireland's making however.

An innocuous Hungarian crossfield ball dropped to McGinn in plenty of space 30 yards out. He attempted to cushion it back to Peacock-Farrell, but it was much too short and that allowed Roland Sallai to nip in ahead of the keeper.

He then had the simplest of tasks to sidefoot the ball into the unguarded net, sending the small band of away supporters at the sold-out Windsor Park into delirium.

Baraclough then began to empty the bench, with Stuart Dallas taking the captain's armband form Davis, who went off just past the hour, while former Linfield striker Shayne Lavery entered the fray to join Charles up front.

While Charles was inches away from getting on the end of a Lavery flick-on from a Dallas left-wing cross 10 minutes from time, Northern Ireland will be disappointed they never truly looked like drawing level until the last couple of minutes.

Firstly, George Saville's free header was straight at Dibusz, who made a decent stop. But, with two minutes to go, sub Trai Hume, making his debut, forced the keeper into a fine save low to his left to keep out the former Linfield man's excellent headed attempt.

They went even close deep into stoppage time when, following a goalmouth scramble, Charles had all the time in the world to finish, but somehow he could only fire straight at Dibusz from point-blank range.

It sort of summed up the night, with Northern Ireland arguably the better wide, but just unable to turn it into goals.

TEAMS

Northern Ireland: Peacock-Farrell, McNair, Ballard (Hume 82), Cathcart, Brown, Lane (Dallas 61), Davis(C) (Saville 61), McCann, Whyte (Thompson 68), Magennis (Charles H-T), McGinn (Lavery 68)

Subs not used: Southwood (GK), Hazard (GK), Flanagan, Ferguson, C Evans, Donnelly

Hungary: Dibusz, Orban, Lang (Kecskes 82), Fibla, Nego (Bolla 82), Styles (Vecsei 82), Schafer, Z Nagy, Szobozlai (A Nagy 65), Sallai (Gazdag 71), Szalai (C) (Adam 71)

Subs not used: Szappanos, Varga, Spandler, Schon

Referee: Rob Harvey (Ireland)