Troy Parrott’s first-half penalty was not enough for the Republic of Ireland, who were pegged back to a draw by Israel in their Nations League Group B3 meeting at TSC Arena in Backa Topola, Serbia. The game, a fixture originally scheduled for Dublin, was played in front of no fans and proved tetchy from start to finish.
Parrott put Ireland in front from the spot in the 39th minute, a goal that took him to 10 in his last seven competitive internationals. The penalty followed a lengthy VAR check, with Jimmy Dunne brought down under a challenge from Dor Peretz after arriving at the post to try to tuck home a rebound from an earlier Parrott effort that Israel goalkeeper Assaf Tzur had scrambled to save. Ireland had begun to find some fluidity before the award.
The lead did not survive long into the second half. Two minutes after the restart Peretz levelled, giving Caoimhín Kelleher no chance with a low finish after an Oscar Gloukh effort took a favourable deflection off Liam Scales and ran into the path of the acting Israel captain.
Both sets of players wore black armbands. Ireland’s players bowed their heads during the Israeli national anthem, while Israel’s players wore black armbands in memory of the people killed in the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023.
There was no handshake between the captains once again. Kelleher, who stepped in as captain for Dara O’Shea after O’Shea was excused to be with his wife for the birth of their child, pointedly avoided shaking hands with Peretz, although he completed the usual pre-match formalities with the referee and one of the assistants. It was a repeat of O’Shea’s action before the sides’ first meeting in Debrecen, Hungary last week, when he declined to shake the hand of Israel captain Manor Solomon. Ireland went on to win that game 3-0 through three first-half goals, and Solomon was dropped to the bench for the return fixture.
The neutral setting was a decision taken by the Football Association of Ireland, which moved the game away from Dublin for “operational reasons” in June following widespread calls for a boycott in protest at Israel’s actions in Gaza. The FAI said the match would be played with no fans present. It followed the association’s own motion the previous November calling on Uefa to ban Israel from club and international competitions.
Israel forward Sayed Abu Farchi was back in the squad after serving a suspension for his sending-off following his goal celebration during Israel’s 3-1 defeat by Austria last month, while Finn Azaz, whose mother has Israeli heritage, was among the Irish substitutes after playing from the start against Austria on Thursday.
The difficult atmosphere between the sides spilled over during a clash as they entered the tunnel at half-time. Officials then broke up a second altercation in three minutes of added time, and there were more heated words exchanged after the final whistle.