Hungary Boss Launches Astonishing Rant Criticising Ref In Ireland Draw

Gary Connaughton reporting from the Aviva Stadium

Ireland's World Cup campaign is still alive, with Heimir Hallgrimsson's side coming away with a dramatic 2-2 draw in their fixture against Hungary at the Aviva Stadium this evening.

Hallgrimsson said in the buildup to this game that it was one Ireland could not afford to lose. For the first half, it seemed as though there was little doubt that such a scenario was about to come to fruition after finding themselves 2-0 down inside 20 minutes.

Much was made in recent days about the newly found belief in the Ireland side. Every ounce of that needed to be on display after the interval.

In fairness, it largely was. They were given a helping hand by Hungary's Roland Sallai, who managed to earn himself a costly red card after a poor challenge on Dara O'Shea in the 52nd minute. In saying that, Evan Ferguson had already gotten them back into the game with an excellent strike a few minutes prior.

What followed was over 40 minutes of wave after waves of Irish attack, something that was only broken up by a couple of dangerous Hungarian counterattacks.

In the end, a dramatic equaliser from Adam Idah was enough to keep Ireland's qualifying campaign alive.

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Hungary Manager Launches Rant Criticising Referee In Ireland Draw

While Ireland will be relatively pleased to come away with a draw in this game, there will be a very different feeling in the Hungary dressing room.

They were in a dominant position in this game only to let it slip. The red card certainly played a part in that, although they also perhaps should have done more to find a third goal in the first half when they were well on top.

Despite this, there is a sense in the Hungarian camp that they were on the receiving end of some questionable refereeing decisions.

Speaking to the media after the game, their manager Marco Rossi would launch a remarkable rant criticising the performance of German referee Harm Osmers in this fixture.

We arrived at the end of the 1st half without conceding. Nothing special.

But then the referee probably started to think that was he refereeing a wrestling match instead of a football match. Then the decisions in this aspect, this aspect must be taken in the same way from both sides. And it was not in this way.

According to me, the goal, first of all was a clear handball by [Nathan] Collins. Have you seen it or not? Because here I'm commenting, but you are watching me like I'm saying stupid things.

It was also clear foul on [Willie] Orban because Collins jumped using his elbow when still [Orban] was not jumping when still he was on the floor...

We could decide everything in the last match (in November) when we will play at home. I will be really, really surprised if we come against a referee like today, leaving them killing us in every contact...

It was a clear foul, the foul before the red card. If you take a look at the videos, you can see it clearly. Either I am blind or someone else is blind.

It was a clear foul on our player. The referee didn't whistle, Ireland recovered the ball, and our player immediately reacted. He went to press the Irish player but he didn't step on his foot.

At least he could give a yellow.

While Marco Rossi was very unhappy with the referee on the night, few in the Ireland camp would agree with him. Indeed, Hungary got got a number of soft free kicks in the second half when their players went down under minimal contact from Irish players in the box.

This should all add to the spice between the sides ahead of what already looks like a massive clash between the sides in Budapest in November.

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