Noel King's Republic of Ireland women's side battled a strong Hungary team to take all three points against the Magyar hosts in the UEFA Championship qualifier in Miskolc this afternoon.
Michele O'Brien opened the scoring after 18 seconds, with Stefanie Curtis scoring with a sublime effort early in the second half.
Arsenal's Emma Byrne produced an extraordinary save from the penalty spot to deny the home side a goal late on.
The Irish attacked straight from kick-off and Irish captain, Ciara Grant played a ball forward to O'Brien who out-muscled the two central defenders at the edge of the box and she superbly lobbed the ball over Szvoipa in the Hungarian goal to give the Irish the lead after only 18 seconds.
The Irish almost extended their lead in the 14th minute when left-back Sharon Boyle floated a free-kick into the box. The ball was cleared as far as Galway's Niamh Fahey who headed narrowly over from ten yards out.
Hungary started dominating proceedings mid-way through the first half as they searched for the equaliser.
Hungary missed a real chance to equalise after 24 minutes when their centre-forward Anett Nagy made a perfectly time run into the box to chase onto a through-ball from the midfield. However, with just Emma Byrne to beat in the Irish goal, she stumbled on the surface of the pitch as Byrne gathered the ball much to the relief of Noel King's side.
Hungary had another glorious opportunity to draw level after 55 minutes. Anita Padar ran on to a ball inside the Irish box but Sharon Boyle pressurised the attacker as her shot went just over Emma Byrne's goal.
Stefanie Curtis scored a tremendous goal after 63 minutes to double Ireland's lead. The Irish were awarded a free-kick from 25 yards out when O'Brien was tugged to the ground by her marker.
In an orchestrated free-kick move, Marie Curtin shaped up to blast the free towards goal but the ball was tapped into space and the on-rushing Curtis blasted it past the keeper from 20 yards out.
Nagy almost pulled one back for Hungary with ten minutes remaining. Her mazy run through the Irish defence was halted as the central defensive pairing of Niamh Fahey and Yvonne Tracy closed her down and blocked her shot.
In the 83rd minute, Hungary were awarded a dubious penalty after one of the Irish defenders was adjudged to have handled the ball from a corner.
Hungarian substitute Katalin Fogl stepped up and her penalty was marvellously blocked by Byrne and the resulting rebound was blasted over the bar by Fogl.
The Republic of Ireland have now recorded four wins in Qualifying Group 2 for the UEFA European Championships and they currently lie in joint first position with Italy, who have played one game less than Noel King's side.
The Irish will now face Sweden at home in June and in Sweden in October as the race for the EURO 2009 qualification hots up.
The six runners-up and four third-placed sides with the best records against the nations finishing first, second and fourth in their groups will be drawn into five two-legged play-offs for the remaining spots in the summer finals.
