Ádám Nagy: We believe we can beat Scotland

Hungary's second Euro 2024 Group A fixture ended in a 2-0 defeat in Stuttgart against hosts Germany in Stuttgart on Wednesday, meaning that after two rounds they are bottom and still without a point. Their third and final group match will be against Scotland on Sunday, a win being their only chance of reaching the round of 16.

The day after the match against Germany, the members of the starting lineup worked according to regeneration protocol, but those who were given fewer opportunities to play or didn't play at all took part in normal training at the training pitch in Weiler (all except Nego and Botond Balogh, who are still unable to train due to injury).

At the afternoon press conference, Ádám Nagy and Zsolt Nagy emphasised that the group can take some confidence from the clash against Germany ahead of the last group match in which the team will certainly hold serious hopes of victory.

"Despite the defeat, we have no reason to be ashamed, because we did what we could on the pitch. Now, we're more frustrated with the refereeing, because it greatly influenced the final result," explained Ádám Nagy, who has spent the most time on the pitch of any Hungarian player in European Championship history.

"We went out onto the pitch with a good mentality, we were more tactically composed and what have been the team strengths in recent years returned to our game; we defended in an organised way and on regaining possession we tried to break on the opponent quickly. The tactics against Germany were fine, but there is a difference in quality between the two teams. However, in a game like this, we're capable of squeezing them and, with a little luck, we could beat a national team which is stronger than us. The task now though is to win against Scotland and after that we can hope that the football gods will help us and we can go through despite these two defeats. We're in a difficult situation, because it may not be enough just to beat the Scots, but we believe we can win the game on Sunday. We have to prepare for a physically strong opponent, it will be important to close down areas and not give the opponent a chance to score. I'm sure we'll have chances, as we have in previous matches too. In the meantime, we need to refresh our minds and take the positive things with us into the last group match."

Ádám's namesake (but no relation) Zsolt Nagy didn't play in the first match, but did come on as a substitute against Germany. The Puskás Akadémia player said he's happy to be a part of the European Championship and has already been given the opportunity to play at the tournament, so he'll do everything he can in training to ensure that the coaching staff will see him as a starter in the final group match.

"Before the Germany match, we talked to each other about the need to change our attitude and return to the national team's previous strengths. This was successful and the difference between the two matches was huge in this respect. The most important thing is to be able to leave the pitch with our heads held high after each match, in the knowledge that we've done everything we can. Unfortunately, we couldn't say that about ourselves after the match against Switzerland, but we could after the match against Germany. We've played three of the four halves played quite well, but unfortunately this doesn't show through in the results so far," Zsolt Nagy concluded.