A superb Denise O'Sullivan performance orchestrated another convincing Republic of Ireland victory in the UEFA Nations League as Eileen Gleeson's team breezed to a 4-0 win against Hungary in Budapest.

Having started life after Vera Pauw with a 3-0 victory over Northern Ireland at the Aviva Stadium last Saturday, the Girls in Green followed it up with a confident display.

Goals from the foot-perfect Caitlin Hayes, Katie McCabe, Kyra Carusa and O'Sullivan put a hard-working but limited Hungary to the sword.

With six points on the board, seven goals scored and none conceded, they next face the group's lowest seeded side, Albania, in an October double-header.

So far so good then in this new Irish dawn.

Gleeson made just one change to the team that beat the North 3-0, as Lily Agg came in for Megan Connolly in midfield.

She sat as one of two deeper-lying pivots alongside Tyler Toland, whch freed up O'Sullivan to pull the strings behind Lucy Quinn and Carusa, who both netted against the North.

Having had a huge, partisan crowd behind them at the Aviva, Ireland were greeted by more sterile surrounds in the sparsely attended Hidegkuti Nandor Stadium.

It made for a downbeat opening, with the players' cries echoing around the ground as police sirens wailed through the surrounding streets.

The typically tireless Payne shook her team into life with two pieces of good attacking play. First, the wing-back flashed in a wicked cross that just evaded Lucy Quinn; then an angled cross/shot thumped off the top of the crossbar.

Hungary, similar to Northern Ireland, were dogged and rigid as they sat back and tried to frustrate the visitors, but once Ireland started to find their groove, gaps peeled open.

Laura Kovacs unceremoniously yanked back McCabe as the Ballon d'Or nominee surged past her, the Dubliner leaping back to her feet in anger. Kovacs then had to produce an excellent piece of defending, sliding in to block Carusa's effort after the striker had raced on to a beautifully weighted O'Sullivan pass.

But Ireland soon got the breakthrough.

McCabe bent in a tremendous 17th-minute cross from deep on the right that was emphatically headed home by the diving Hayes.

Ireland grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck thereafter. O'Sullivan - a supreme presence in the middle - spun patterns of play that had the Hungarians in a spin, her touch and vision dictating the tempo.

Hayes, Louise Quinn and Diane Caldwell - winning her 99th cap - bottled up the sporadic home attacks with a front-foot style of defending that regularly launched Irish counters.

A spell of sloppy passing somewhat disprupted the Irish momentum approaching half-time, with Agg and Toland guilty of some cheap turnovers. But in the 42nd minute McCabe settled her teammates with a 25-yard thunderbolt - a pure, ferociously hit strike that flew past goalkeeper Reka Szocs.

Two up at the break, Gleeson replaced Lucy Quinn with Izzy Atkinson, moving McCabe higher up the pitch.

Atkinson made a swift impact. She fed Carusa with a lovely through ball, the Californian denied in the area by another last-ditch tackle. But in the next play, the striker got her goal. McCabe picked out Payne on the overlap, and she whipped in a good cross that Carusa glanced home.

Carusa then failed to connect with a smashing Atkinson cross from the left as Ireland threatened to run riot, with Hayes' attempted cross bumping off the top of Szocs' bar moments later.

Carusa was desperately unlucky to see a fine header crash off the inside of the post, albeit a subsequent raised flag nursed any sense of misfortune.

Hungary kept plugging away, but they were being outclassed - and in the 70th minute, the game's chief orchestrator got the goal she richly deserved.

Megan Connolly won back possession and found Carusa on the right side of the box. She pulled a low centre back to just inside the box and O'Sullivan guided a confident finish into the bottom right corner.

Fanni Vachter squandered Hungary's best opportunity of the game when she fizzed a tame effort into Brosnan's hands, and substitute Virag Nagy should have done better in stoppage time after getting in behind the dfence only to lash an effort straight at the Irish keeper.

Perhaps the hosts deserved a consolation for their efforts, but they could have no complaints about the scoreline. This was comfortable and emphatic for Ireland.

There'll be sterner examinations of the more expansive style they adopted this evening, but they may not come for a while.

Next up is a double-header against an Albanian outfit ranked 72nd in the world.

Hungary: Reka Szocs; Laura Kovacs, Luca Papp, Lilla Turanyi, Hanna Nemeth (Emoke Pape 45), Laura Palakovics (Boglarka Vida 45); Dora Zeller, Dora Sule (Fanni Vachter 45), Evelin Fenyvesi (capt, Csilla Savanya 72), Viktoria Szabo; Zsanette Kajan (Virag Nagy 90)

Republic of Ireland: Courtney Brosnan; Caitlin Hayes, Louise Quinn, Diane Caldwell; Heather Payne (Abbie Larkin 56), Lily Agg (Megan Connolly 56), Tyler Toland (Jamie Finn 78), Denise O'Sullivan, Katie McCabe (capt); Lucy Quinn (Izzy Atkinson 45), Kyra Carusa (Amber Barrett 74)

Referee: Zuzana Valentova (Slovakia)

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