Former Wolves and Reading forward Kevin Doyle reportedly lashed out at Liverpool’s Dominik Szoboszlai after the Republic of Ireland’s thrilling win over Hungary. The 42-year-old, who provides analysis for RTE Sport, was caught on camera celebrating wildly in the studio before apparently directing an expletive-laden comment at the Hungarian captain, calling him a “Liverpool bastard”.
Troy Parrott scored a last-minute hat-trick to keep Ireland’s World Cup hopes alive. The former Tottenham Hotspur striker scored in the 96th minute to seal Heimir Hallgrimsson’s side a place in the play-offs, overturning a 2-1 deficit to secure a 3-2 victory.
Ireland’s surprise win against Portugal earlier this week provided a glimmer of hope ahead of Sunday’s match in Budapest. Parrott scored twice in 16 minutes to mount a comeback and advance to Thursday’s playoff lottery. There they could face teams such as Wales, Slovakia, Scotland, Czech Republic, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania and Kosovo.
RTE Sport’s X account shared a cropped version of Doyle celebrating around the studio, but the entire scene following the dramatic win was filmed off-camera and posted to social media platform X by user @Liam_D79. It shows Doyle running around the studio before gesturing an X-rated message at the Liverpool midfielder.
Doyle was caught on camera saying: “Fuck you, you Liverpool bastard,” before quickly apologizing to former Liverpool midfielder Didi Hamann, who was also part of the pundit team.
Doyle retired in 2017 after playing for Colorado Rapids in the American MLS, and then turned to a pundit and devoted his love to horse racing.
The 25-year-old Liverpool star set up Dani Lukac’s goal to open the scoring within five minutes, before Reds teammate Milos Kerkes assisted Barnabas Varga’s goal and Parrott’s equalizing penalty restored the lead. Szoboszlai, who missed out on a playoff spot with the loss, was visibly distraught at the final whistle.
In a post-match interview, when asked by local media how much the loss hurt, he struggled to express his disappointment, saying only “very.”
Republic of Ireland hero Troy Parrott was similarly emotional after scoring a hat-trick in the match, but for a completely different reason. Speaking to RTE, he said: “Yeah, I’m really, really emotional right now… I’m sorry. Tears of joy.
“What a night. What a night. You better put that kind of pressure on yourself and whatever happens, you put it on someone else and leave it out of your hands. It’s unbelievable. It’s really unbelievable. That’s why we love football because something like this can happen.”
“Look, Tony, I love where I’m from. So this means the world to me. My family is here… It’s the first time I’ve cried in years, too. I can’t believe it. Everyone’s crying. I told Portugal this is what dreams are made of, but tonight I don’t think there’s ever been a better night in my life.”
“It really is a fairy tale. I would never dream of something like that. Honestly, I don’t have the words to express how I’m feeling right now.
“Everyone criticized us at the start of the group. But I can’t say it enough, there’s always a chance. And we took the chance.”
“Everyone should be proud of the group of players over there. To go down twice and come back like that is beautiful.” RTE has been contacted for comment.
