It was clear by now, but just to stay methodical: 4 out of the 6 third-placed teams qualified according to their own table. 1. BEL^ 3 5-5 2. POL^ 3 1-3 3. BUL^ 2 2-4 4. URU^ 2 2-7 5. HUN 2 2-9 6. NIR 1 2-6
Northern Ireland knew they were going home – 1 point had no chance. But they were going home proudly: with severely limited resources, they played pretty equal to any other team. May be skills were lacking, but they had big hearts, nobody blame them. Perhaps the only team deserving to stay longer – when you look at the lucky ones. Too bad it ended like this for Pat Jennings, at the end of his long career, and Sammy McIlroy, who was also getting too old. Without knowing yet, too bad for Norman Whiteside, for his career was cut short by injuries and this happened to be his last World Cup too. One cannot be too sorry for the spirited Irish for another reason: they did not play great football and no matter how big their hearts, the quality of their game was not great and there was no way to change that.
Hungary... apart from fellow Hungarians, nobody could be sorry for them. It was weak team, no doubt about it. Improvement was not possible at all – Hungary was on its way downhill, hardly had any promising players, and even did not have the spirit the Irish had. Frankly, better have the Uruguayans, who at least enraged everybody with their murderous kind of football: they stirred some emotional response, the Hungarians stirred nothing. One of the teams fully deserving to go home as soon as possible.