Ireland 'more than ready' for World Cup tilt in Hungary, says Caoimhín Kelleher

The Boys in Green No 1 has called for calm ahead of the do-or-die showdown.

Sun, 16 Nov, 2025 - 06:00

John Fallon, Budapest

Caoimhín Kelleher admits for the first time in his Ireland career he can visualise a major tournament being within touching distance as they square up to Hungary in Sunday’s concluding World Cup qualifier (2pm, Irish).

It was in this captivating city of Budapest that the Corkman made his senior Ireland debut in 2021 but the excitement of mounting a proper tilt at qualifying has eluded his generation.

Thursday’s 2-0 win over top seeds Portugal has made breaking that duck a reality. He turns 26 next week, aware that victory over the Magyars on Sunday afternoon, coupled with another two in next March’s playoffs, will end Ireland’s 24-year wait to be among the World Cup extravaganza.

“Yes, I think so,” he said about that reality coming into focus.

“Before this campaign started, the goal from the whole team and the staff was to qualify for a major tournament. That's always been the dream.

“At the start of the campaign, coming into the last game we would have taken this scenario whereby a win qualifies us for a play-off.

“I think we've set it up for us. You can feel it's a big game. You can feel it's going to be a big occasion. We're more than ready. We're looking forward to it. We're excited and hopefully we can get a big win.

Someone of Kelleher’s demeanour and success doesn’t indulge extremes of emotion but confesses the joy of beating the fifth-best team in the world skyrocketed their belief levels.

“Thursday was a special night,” the Brentford stopper noted.

“I think a lot of us lads in the group probably haven't experienced that before. It was incredible and definitely given me and the whole squad the fuel to go on and do more and experience that.

I didn't think it would get any more special, but if we qualify then that would probably be amazing. Especially, these fans, they travel everywhere, be it Armenia, Hungary, wherever, they travel in their numbers and they all support us, whatever the result.

“So to give them a major tournament and for the whole country to give them a lift would be special.

“We need to stay calm. There's still a game to be played. We've not done anything yet because we've not qualified for anything.

“You need to use it in the right way. But for sure it gives us a boost seeing how big of a win that was and how the whole country gets behind you.

“You see everyone wanting to go over to Budapest now and get tickets and flights. It definitely gives us a boost. Our focus now and our motivation is to give them fans a great night tomorrow.”

Meanwhile, Heimir Hallgrímsson has denied he engages his mind-games around these big games. Cristiano Ronaldo blamed the Ireland boss for allegedly influencing the referee to send him off with his pre-match comments.

“We were not playing mind games - just unhappy with the referee in Portugal,” the Icelander said about Ronaldo’s role in the first match, the late 1-0 loss.

“There’s a lot of questions about the Portugal game but that's finished. I don't like to talk about this.

“We just want to prepare as well for this game as a team. I'm not thinking about anything else. I just wish all referees to have a good game.”