Crestfallen Hungary boss Marco Rossi feeling robbed by Ireland's 'master of stolen goals'

CRESTFALLEN: Hungary head coach Marco Rossi after their world fell in Budapest. Pic: David Balogh/Getty Images

HUNGARY manager Marco Rossi has described Ireland hero Troy Parrott as "a master of stolen goals," as a stunned nation came to terms with their dramatic elimination from next year's World Cup.

Rossi admitted that he couldn't find the right words to articulate the sense of sadness at their dramatic fall in front of their own fans at the Puskas Arena.

"It's hard to say anything at the moment, and for me personally it's very difficult to think about the future," he admitted, head bowed. "I can't find the words. I'm very sorry, we're very sorry... For ourselves, for the guys, for the fans. We didn't deserve to lose, but it's the same as in Ireland. We knew they would pass the ball forward, but we couldn't hold on. I said at half-time that we had to get the third goal, but we failed to take advantage of the situation, and then what happened happened..." 

He added: "Whether it's mental or physical is hard to say at the moment. We're definitely tired, but luck wasn't on our side, especially this time. We're a good team, but we're not phenomenal, we made mistakes several times. We didn't deserve this, this match shouldn't have ended this way.

"I told the guys that I can't blame them for anything. We are also discussing with the Hungarian officials what direction we should move forward in, we are evaluating what happened. Of course, only the play-offs could have ended in a draw, but we need to evaluate how we should proceed now that it has become certain that we will not qualify for the World Cup."

"I don't think the team unity would break down, that there would be a danger of that. We played the last matches in November in a way that we had no chance of qualifying for the World Cup, now we had plenty of opportunity for that, in fact... The team spirit is strong, when we have to start again, we can start again, but we don't want to talk about the future or think about that yet.

"We were prepared for Troy Parrott, who scored a hat-trick, and we knew his skills. We couldn't hold him back today, even though he didn't have many opportunities outside of his goals. He's a master of these so-called stolen goals..."

"The result changed with last second goals on both occasions (we played Ireland). In the first match in Dublin, it could have been 1-2, here it could have been 2-2. I also told the guys that when you lose like this in the last second, we can't complain about the players' attitude, about their desire to win, because they did what I asked of them, and now I can't say anything bad. We knew in advance that they could cause us problems with the kind of play they are capable of. If we had a little more luck, we could have solved it and achieved a good result in Dublin. But today we were very unlucky," Rossi noted.

"We knew before the game what would be Ireland's plan, that they would attack til the end, like they did at home, and we couldn't compete with their physicality, that's why we lost. It's very difficult when you concede a goal in the last second, and that's what happened in Dublin, where it was a draw, and we lost. It's very difficult to accept this," said Rossi.

On his own future as Hunhgary manager, he added: "It's hard to think about the future now, about the next matches. I've been the national team's head coach for quite some time now, and I have to say that this is the moment when I feel the worst since I've been captain. Of course, I'm not looking for an alibi or an explanation, I'm the one who's primarily responsible, and I'm very sad."