Four-star Ireland impress in Nations League rout of Hungary
IN-FORM: Ireland's Kyra Carusa scores the third goal. Pic: INPHO/Ryan Byrne
Promotion to League A for next year’s European qualifiers is firmly in Ireland’s control after they sauntered to their second comfortable Nations League victory in three days.
Caitlin Hayes got the rout in Budapest underway by powering a 19th minute header home before a peach of a strike by Katie McCabe added the second three minutes before the break. Kyra Carusa and Denise O’Sullivan added a couple more, illustrating the chasm between Ireland and their group opponents.
Next month’s double-header against lowest seeds Albania shouldn’t pose any problems either.
Admitting she was tempted to stick with the same team that cantered past Northern Ireland 3-0, Eileen Gleeson made just the one change by drafting Lily Agg into her midfield.
Agg scored with her first touch after coming on against the North and was chosen ahead of Megan Connolly in a rare demotion to the bench for the Corkwoman.
In a sparsely populated arena, a contrast from Saturday’s raucous atmosphere before 30,000 fans at Aviva Stadium, the onus was on Ireland to dictate the tempo.
Hungary were content to sit deep, station two midfielders in front of their back five, and await openings to counterattack.
They managed to spring on a couple of occasions but those were the exceptions in a first-half dominated by Ireland.
Heather Payne, hugging the right touchline, was the principle outlet for the visitors to funnel their attacks through and the recent Everton recruit saw her cross-shot tipped onto the crossbar by Réka Szőcs.
Crisper crosses by Payne would have presented Lucy Quinn with a couple of tap-ins and that inaccuracy almost bit them when, against the run of play, Dóra Süle was left alone from a Laura Palakovics centre on 17 minutes.
Perhaps not realising the ball would drop her way, she misjudged the flight and it struck her shoulder.
Two minutes later and Hayes showed her how to plant a header home. The centre-back had remained around the penalty area when a corner was half-cleared and McCabe’s delightful in-swinging cross after she’d dropped the shoulder drifting in from the right landed perfectly for the Celtic defender to nod home.
It capped an epic week for the newcomer, who got his first Irish passport on Friday, cap the next day, and goal here in Budapest. Not even a late booking could curb her ascent.
Thereafter the half descended into a scrap, punctuated by sloppy passes and the Hungarians engaging in persistent fouling.
Against that toil, a moment of magic from McCabe three minutes before the break both broke the monotony and ensured a routine win was safe.
Once she watched her cross get intercepted, McCabe anticipated the pass into Dóra Süle, nipping in ahead of her fellow captain.
In one motion, she looked up from her central position and arrowed her 25-yarder into the top corner.
The Magyars responded with a triple substitution at the break but it couldn’t stem the tide.
Gleeson’s interval substitute of her own, Izzy Atkinson, raided down the left flank with abandon, facilitating the switching of McCabe into an advanced role.
She flanked Denise O’Sullivan as the two No 10s behind Kyra Carusa, wreaking havoc on a brittle defence.
Four minutes in, Laura Kovács’s tackle prevented Carusa from slotting home but when the ball was recycled, Payne’s cross was pinpoint for the American to glance her header into the far corner from six yards.
A similar move produced the fourth with 20 minutes left. Connolly, brought on early in the second half, snapped into a tackle to regain possession before feeding Carusa on the right. Her cutback was timed for O’Sullivan to arrive on cue and sidefoot her 19th international goal into the bottom corner.
Szőcs; Kovács, Papp, Turányi, Németh (Vachter 46), Palakovics (Pápai 46); Zeller, Szabó, Süle (Vida 46), Fenyvesi (Savanya 73); Kaján (Nagy 90).
Brosnan; Hayes, Louise Quinn, Caldwell; Payne (Larkin 56), Agg (Connolly 56), Toland (Finn 78), McCabe; Lucy Quinn (Atkinson 46), O’Sullivan; Carusa (Barrett 75).
Zuzana Valentová (SVK).
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