Northern Ireland were left frustrated in a 0-0 draw at home to Hungary that looked to be there for the taking.
Patrick Kelly twice went close in the first half and Isaac Price was denied by Balazs Toth late on, but Northern Ireland could not find a goal which would have made it a perfect start to the campaign in Group B2 of the Nations League.
They looked the better side against higher-ranked opposition who struggled to create chances until the latter stages of a night when Liverpool star Dominik Szoboszlai’s most notable contribution was to charge up the Windsor Park crowd.
There were nervous moments in the closing stages as Ruairi McConville made a key block from Willi Orban and Pierce Charles saved from Alex Toth to preserve his fifth clean sheet in seven competitive appearances for Northern Ireland.
It means Michael O’Neill’s side have lost only one of their last 10 games in Belfast, and they looked resolute again with Hungary managing only one shot on target.
The major frustration for O’Neill will be the number of yellow cards shown by referee Ricardo De Burgos, with four Northern Ireland players – Shea Charles, Jamie Donley, Isaac Price and Ethan Galbraith – going in the book along with the manager himself.
Coming off the back of Friday’s last-gasp 1-0 win in Tbilisi and enjoying the roar of a Windsor Park crowd for the first time in 315 days, Northern Ireland were quick to get at Hungary with a strong press, picking off hurried passes from the visiting defence.
That led to chances for the busy Galbraith and Price early on before Trai Hume sent a shot from the edge of the area narrowly wide.
Northern Ireland’s best two chances of the first half both came for Kelly. Just after the half-hour mark, Price slipped it through and the Barnsley midfielder tried to chip Blackburn’s Balazs Toth but could not get enough height on the shot with the goal gaping.
Then Tom Atcheson flicked on a Ciaron Brown long throw, and although Shea Charles could not reach the ball as he tussled with Milos Kerkez, it fell for an off-balance Kelly who looped it up on to the top of the crossbar.
Hungary were not enjoying Northern Ireland’s physical approach as they struggled to threaten and tempers began to fray.
After Donley became the third home player to be booked O’Neill also saw yellow for his protests and the half ended in confrontation after Charles left Daniel Lukacs in a heap challenging for a high ball.
Hungary began to get forward more after the break. Schafer sent a snapshot wide inside the box, then missed the target from long range after a short free-kick before Donat Barany headed over from a corner.
Northern Ireland were struggling to get forward as they had in the first half, but from a free-kick pumped into the box Price spun away from Kerkez before seeing his shot saved at the near post.
At the other end, McConville threw himself in front of a close-range strike from Orban and Charles repelled a powerful strike from Bournemouth’s Alex Toth as time ticked down.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: skynews.com
