Ireland can shift June gloom with Hungary win – O’Shea

John O’Shea is confident that Ireland can shift the June gloom and get the required result as his side takes on Hungary at the Aviva tomorrow night.

Ireland have struggled in recent seasons to perform to their potential in the end-of-season June international window, losing games away to Armenia in 2022 and to Greece last summer.

The manager acknowledged that it can be a difficult time for his squad, considering many of them have finished their seasons over a month ago, however, he is confident that the team will be ready to go at kick-off time tomorrow night.

O’Shea is again emphasising the importance of getting results and restoring a winning mentality in the team, who will follow up the Hungary match with an away trip to Portugal next week to end the season.

The FAI have yet to find a replacement for Stephen Kenny, and O’Shea can put himself in the driving seat with solid performances over the course of these two international friendlies.

“It’s an awkward one in terms of players in different leagues finishing, whether that be in England or Europe,” said O’Shea, speaking at Monday’s pre-match press conference.

“It is a little bit tricky. We have plans in place with our fitness coach. When they came in Thursday we had a little session just to see where the players are at.

“That won’t be an excuse for us; the team will be more than ready to cause Hungary problems.”

O’Shea, of course, was in charge for the two games in March where Ireland impressed in a scoreless home draw with Belgium before losing a tight encounter with Switzerland where Xherdan Shaqiri’s goal proved the difference between the sides.

And the manager believes that there are plenty of positives to take from those performances to offer his side encouragement for the upcoming double header.

“We limited Belgium and Switzerland to very few chances,” said O’Shea. “Our goalkeepers were only beaten by a set piece. We limited two very good teams to a small number of chances so that will hopefully be the same again, we have to be difficult to beat for bigger threats.”

But O’Shea is also very aware that there has to be a real focus on getting results and believes that the confidence will really start to build once this team starts scoring goals and taking the chances that are presented.

“The key to winning matches is to take your chances when they come,” said O’Shea.

“But also to hurt teams, to score goals, to get that confidence in hitting the back of the net and getting the firepower on the pitch to do that as well and to keep that solidness in the team.

“To know that we have the confidence that we’re not going to concede many chances, but we’ve got to create more chances and hurt teams by scoring goals.”

Andrew Omobamidele is ruled out through injury, which offers an opportunity for new arrival Bosun Lawal to get involved, and the manager hinted that the young Celtic prospect may get to see some action at the Aviva.

“I have been watching him,” said O’Shea. “He is obviously a strong lad, but we have seen the delicate touches from him as well. He can glide past players as well. He did a couple of things in training yesterday where he was stopping runs, matching runs, whether it was fast centre forwards, fast wingers, fast 10s, they struggled to get past him.

“He is really exciting, but he has to keep developing too. Hopefully we will have a chance to see him tomorrow. You never know.”

And O’Shea is maintaining a positive approach to these end of season affairs, stressing the importance of the time with the squad to really get to know the players and to build confidence.

“We’re fully focused on Hungary but then you get the chance a couple of days later, you travel away and you have an amazing test of facing possibly one of the favourites to win the Euros.

“So you get a chance to see players in adversity in terms of the challenge that will bring, not to mention the challenge of Hungary.

“But you get the chance to build the group, get confidence among the group, getting to know each other, seeing how senior players, how they train, how they behave around the hotel, seeing how they cope with things, it’s a combination of things, because ultimately you want as much time with the players as you can but you have to be respectful of the time of the season and obviously taking care of the lads too for physical reasons.”

And O’Shea is hoping that this camp can start to reap rewards with results, which will help the squad to be ready to hit the ground running in September with the start of the Nations League campaign.

“It would be massive. First and foremost, it’s Hungary. We’re doing all we can to get the win against Hungary and it will be a case of building some confidence for the games coming after that, first and foremost it will be Portugal, but then when you think of England, Finland and Greece, they’re difficult games but ones, as a player, you would want to be involved in because obviously they’re so important to the country.”

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Watch Sweden v Republic of Ireland in Euro 2025 qualifying on Tuesday from 5pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app and listen to commentary on an extended Game On with 2fm

Watch Republic of Ireland v Hungary (7.45pm) on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app and listen to commentary on RTÉ Radio 1 Extra from 7.40pm