Rossi makes few changes in new Hungary Men's squad

Instead of the usual two fixtures, the team will face three matches in October, firstly away against Bulgaria in the European Championship qualifying play-off semi-final on 8th October before Nations League matches away against Serbia and Russia.

In defence, Endre Botka and Szilveszter Hangya are included, as is Ákos Kecskés, who was only belatedly called up in September. The same can be said for Filip Holender, while Dániel Gazdag, who was unable to join the team a month ago due to the coronavirus pandemic, will hopefully be able to part of the group this time. The forwards include Norbert Könyves who has performed well for ZTE recently, and Kevin Varga, who only moved to Kasimpasa in Turkey over the summer.

"There are players in the frame whose invitation we had already planned for in September, but which we had to cancel due to injury," Marco Rossi told mlsz.hu. "We have been watching Könyves for a long time - he is in great shape - but due to his injury we couldn't call him up a month ago, and for the same reason we had to dispense with the inclusions of Hangya and Botka. We've also selected players who took advantage of there opportunity in September, so now we are counting on them from the beginning of the training camp. There are two more players in the current squad as we play one more match, but 23 outfield players and three goalkeepers, in my opinion, ensure that we can properly rotate the team for both the second and third matches. Once again, we have developed the squad according to the principles put in place two years ago, but there is an exception in the case of Ádám Szalai, who trained with the first team of Mainz a week ago, also played in the German Cup, and is still training, so he is in good shape".

The team's first match will be the European Championship qualifier in Sofia, which can be called the most important match of the year without exaggeration. After that, the team will play two Nations League fixtures, which means that the national team will have to cope with unprecedented load of three matches in under a week in October.

Everyone knows very well how important the match against Bulgaria is. We’ve been studying our opponents for a long time and we’ve been thoroughly prepared for them, but the reverse is also probably true. On paper, the two teams have a 50-50 chance, but if we deliver the same performance as in the two games in September, we can increase our chances of progressing. We need to trust ourselves, our abilities, the work we do, and our tactics!

We will play three matches in six days, so it is certain that we will be playing with a different starting team in both the second and third games so that we start each match with the players who are in the best possible condition.

The squad members will meet in Budapest on Sunday 4th October before travelling to Sofia, the venue of the European Championship qualifying match, three days later. The national team will travel from Bulgaria to Belgrade, where they will play on 11th October, and then on from the Serbian capital to Moscow, where they will play their last match of the month on 14th October.