By Mark McCadden

Copyright irishmirror

Hungary midfielder Callum Styles says the red card to teammate Roland Sallai “killed the game” for the visitors in their 2-2 draw with Ireland earlier this month.

And the West Brom star, a clubmate of Ireland winger Mikey Johnston, believes it was a case of two points dropped against the Boys in Green.

Sallai scored Hungary’s second goal just 15 minutes into the World Cup qualification opener – and the visitors held onto their two-goal advantage until Evan Ferguson pulled one back in the 49th minute.

Sallai was red carded shortly after that for a lunge at Dara O’Shea, and Ireland’s relentless bombardment of the Hungarian penalty area eventually led to Adam Idah’s injury-time equaliser.

Heimir Hallgrímsson’s side went on to Yerevan three days later, where they suffered a massive set-back in a shocking 2-1 defeat to Armenia.

Later that evening, Hungary came within four minutes of claiming a point against Portugal, Joao Cancello to secure a late 3-2 win for the group favourites.

Styles said: “It was a top experience going away with Hungary… we did really well in the last international break.

“We played Portugal, who are a top, top team with world-class players and great depth in every position, and the Ireland game we probably should’ve won but drew.

“We got a red card and it killed the game for us, then against Portugal we tried nullifying them as best we could but with their quality, as they showed, they only needed one more chance in the game which they took.

“The games can be different at international level, the styles differ to those teams in the Championship, but it’s good to play with the best, against the best, and test yourself against the elite.”

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