On Saturday, the Republic of Ireland, ranked 60th, play 38th-ranked Hungary at the Aviva in our opening game of the 2026 World Cup campaign. It will be the 22nd World Cup qualification campaign for the Irish, but this meeting will recall the worst of times and the best for the Republic, the two previous occasions the teams met in World Cup qualification stage.
The first-ever World Cup game for Ireland was played at Dalymount Park on Feb. 25, 1934 when Paddy Moore scored all four goals in the 4-4 draw with Belgium. We qualified for the finals for the first time in 1990 and again in 1994 and 2002.
Ireland were not far off qualification a few times before 1990, coming close, for instance, with a very strong team in 1982. And we lost a play-off for a spot in the 1966 World Cup against Spain in Paris; but it was a different story for 1970, when we were grouped with Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Denmark. The Irish team registered five losses and got a single point from a home draw against the fourth-seeded Danes. Ireland hosted the top-seeded Hungarians at Dalymount Park on a Sunday afternoon in June 1969. Hungary went in at half-time a goal ahead, but 19-year-old Don Givens got the first of his 19 goals for the Republic in the 59th minute. Alas, Ferenc Bene, the sixth most prolific goal-scorer in soccer history, got the winner in the 80th minute. Bene scored 12 goals in five games when Hungary won gold at the 1964 Olympics and four in four games at 1966 World Cup in England, including one in the defeat of Brazil.
However, Czechoslovakia shared top honors with Hungary in that group with Ireland and they won the playoff 4-1 in Marseilles; the Czechs, though, were on the wrong end of the same scoreline in their opening game in Mexico against ultimate winners Brazil, which had Pele leading the attack for one of the greatest football teams of all time. Meantime, the Hungarians were past their glory days with Ferenc Puskás, when they hammered England twice in 1953 and were expected to win the World Cup in 1954, but lost in the final to West Germany
It took a winner (for England in 1966) as a player, Jack Charlton, to manage Ireland to a World Cup tournament place for the first time and again Hungary were involved. Also in the group were Northern Ireland, Malta and Spain, with two qualification spots available for Italia ’90. The Republic would win every home game, while on the road lost to Spain, drew with Northern Ireland and Hungary, and beat Malta. The Hungary game at Aviva predecessor Lansdowne Road took place almost 20 years to the day after Bene got his winner. This time, Tony Cascarino and Paul McGrath scored for Ireland, while there was no reply from the Hungarians. We ended in a comfortable second place in the group behind Spain and ahead of Hungary, and the rest is history.
