West Ham United forward Evan Ferguson was among the scorers as the Republic of Ireland came from behind on the night to defeat Bulgaria 2-1 in their UEFA Nations League B/C play-off second leg, and earn a 4-2 aggregate win.
The 20-year-old - who is currently on loan in east London from Brighton & Hove Albion - had come off the bench for the final 14 minutes of Thursday’s 2-1 first-leg triumph in Plovdiv, but earned his 20th cap from the start back in Dublin.
Bulgaria’s Valentin Antov scored a 30th-minute opener to level the tie on aggregate, but Ferguson showed great composure to fire in his fifth senior international goal shortly after the hour, following a clever one-two with Finn Azaz, to restore the hosts’ overall lead.
Celtic striker Adam Idah put the result beyond doubt with six minutes left, retaining Ireland’s League B status for the 2026/27 edition of the Nations League, and preventing relegation, following their third-place finish in Group B2 between September and November 2024.
Earlier on Sunday, defender Dinos Mavropanos completed the full 90 minutes to help Greece impressively bounce back from their Nations League A/B play-off first-leg defeat to Scotland and earn promotion to League A.
After going down 1-0 in Piraeus on Thursday, Ivan Jovanović’s men were 3-0 winners at Hampden Park three days later, with Giannis Konstantelias and teenager Konstantinos Karetsas scoring in the first half, before Christos Tzolis notched a decisive third just 15 seconds after the restart.
The 3-1 aggregate scoreline means that Mavropanos and his teammates propel up to the top tier of the Nations League for the first time since the start of the competition in 2018/19, having finished second behind England in Group B2 - and one place above the Republic of Ireland - to earn their promotion play-off shot.
Elsewhere, young goalkeeper Krisztián Hegyi - who joined Debreceni VSC on loan in January - was not involved as Hungary were beaten 3-0 by Turkey in their Nations League A/B play-off second leg in Budapest, contributing to a 6-1 aggregate scoreline that condemned them to relegation to League B.
Hungary had finished third behind Germany and the Netherlands in Group A3 in the normal running of the competition, but Hakan Çalhanoğlu, Arda Güler and Abdülkerim Bardakcı all etched their names on to the scoresheet for the visitors to the Puskás Aréna in a one-sided second leg, following Turkey’s 3-1 win on Thursday.
Hegyi was unfortunately missing from the matchday squads for both of the play-off clashes after picking up a thigh muscle injury while training for his national team. He is still awaiting his first senior cap, but earned his call-up after impressing during his seven appearances for Debreceni in his homeland.
