Two Ireland Players Facing Bans For World Cup Play-Offs After Dramatic Hungary Win
Two Republic of Ireland players are facing a ban for their World Cup play-offs game after picking up bookings in the dramatic win over Hungary.
The Irish dream of featuring at the World Cup for the first time since the 2002 tournament which took place in Japan and South Korea remain alive after a last-gasp 3-2 win.
The Republic went behind early at the Puskas Arena thanks to Daniel Lukacs heading the hosts in front.
Troy Parrott equalised from the penalty spot on 15 minutes but Barnabus Varga restored Hungary's lead before half-time.
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Parrott levelled again with 10 minutes of normal time remaining, before AZ Alkmaar forward Parrott fired home the winner to complete his hat-trick deep into injury time to spark jubilant Irish celebrations.
The victory for the Irish also meant despair for Hungary whose wait to feature at a World Cup for the first time since 1986 goes on.
Portugal - whom the Republic of Ireland beat 2-0 last week - booked their place at next summer's tournament in the United States, Canada and Mexico by thrashing Armenia 9-1 and topped Group F.
The Irish will discover who they will face in the play-offs on Thursday, 20 November, as 16 teams will be whittled down to four and join the 12 European group winners at next summer's World Cup.
The upcoming play-offs sees the 12 group runners-up be joined by four Nations League group winners that finished outside the top two in their qualifying groups.
There will be four play-off paths with single-leg semi-finals and a single-leg final producing four winners who will have then finally booked their place at next summer's World Cup.
The semi-finals will take place next year on March 26, with the finals being held on March 31 in the final international break in the regular season before the World Cup.
However, the Republic are set to be without two players for their semi-final next year after they both picked up a second recent booking against Hungary.
Liam Scales of Celtic started the game but was booked in the 68th minute.
Istanbul Basaksehir's Festy Ebosele came off the bench to replace Seamus Coleman, and he was shown a yellow card in the 89th minute as full-time approached.
Both players had both been booked in previous matches against Portugal - Ebosele in October and Scales last week - and so they must both sit out the Republic's semi-final as a result.
Yellow cards are wiped out between the preliminary competition and the World Cup itself, however, according to FIFA regulations - while they also do not carry over from the semi-finals of the play-off leg to the final.
FIFA's regulations state that the play-off tournament is classed as part of the preliminary competition.
Therefore, any player booked in the semi-final will not miss the final, should their nation reach that stage.
Topics: Republic of Ireland, FIFA Club World Cup, Football World Cup
John McDougall