Four new faces in Hungary men's squad to take on Ireland and Portugal

Marco Rossi has announced a larger-than-usual 27-man squad for Hungary's first two FIFA World Cup qualifiers, a move designed to ensure the group is prepared for all eventualities as they start the journey towards qualification to the World Cup in the USA next summer.

"We've been continuously monitoring the players since our last matches in June and since the end of the summer break, even in warm-up matches, but unfortunately there have been a few who haven't played much, even in pre-season. However, we've seen several promising players in Hungary's top tier, the Fizz League, and our basic principle now has been to call up those who are in good form," Marco Rossi told mlsz.hu.

In Tuesday's press conference, it was also announced that Wizz Air, Hungary's de facto national airline, will be one of the main sponsors of the men's national team, which is preparing to embark on its World Cup qualifying campaign, from the end of August this year. MLSZ's current series on its YouTube channel entitled 'Egyenesen' ('straight there' in English) will also be produced with Wizz Air's support.

"In the past, we experienced that even if someone was a better player than another, if they were not in good form, they were not of great help to us, but rather the one who was in good shape. So we ourselves are trying to learn from our previous decisions."

"This time there are four new players in the squad. Barna Tóth has the height to be a striker and is in good form, so he can be useful if we need to replace Barnabás Varga, and he's always dangerous inside the penalty area for Paks. Rajmund Molnár has started the season very well; he's a very talented winger, whom we know well and could have a great future in our national team."

"In the case of Lukács, I'd highlight his pace - I actually know of him from his time playing for Honvéd. Elsewhere, we've been watching Bence Ötvös since he played for Kisvárda. In his case, we've noticed he can handle mental pressure very well, in addition to being physically good, which can be a great help to us now."

Rossi's side will play away against Republic of Ireland, ranked 60th in the world, on 6th September, before three days later hosting Portugal, ranked 6th in FIFA's rankings, at the Puskás Arena.

"The two matches in September will be extremely difficult, we know that very well," Rossi stated. "Of course, the first one is the most important for us, because although it's not the one that will decide World Cup qualification, we would like to start the campaign well. Republic of Ireland are a physical team, whom we've studied a lot, having also played a friendly match against them last year. Then, they played with pretty much the same players we can count on seeing now, but this time Evan Ferguson, who has been doing fantastically well at AS Roma recently, will also probably be there. Our defence will have to play very well, although my principle is that good defence is the most important thing anyway, but this is even truer now."

"Many people may think about the match against Portugal that we have nothing to lose, but that's not the case. We have to perform as well as possible and we'll only have a chance of achieving a good result against them if this can be said of all our players; if we follow our tactics perfectly, run a lot, press and be more combative than them, given that they're [Portugal] not currently in their best form."

Hungary's squad members will start their preparations at the national-team training centre in Telki on Monday 1st September.

The latest Hungary squad:

Goalkeepers:

Dénes Dibusz (Ferencváros)
Péter Szappanos (Puskás Akadémia)
Balázs Tóth (Blackburn Rovers)

Defenders:

Bendegúz Bolla (Rapid Wien)
Márton Dárdai (Hertha BSC)
Milos Kerkez (Liverpool)
Attila Mocsi (Rizespor)
Zsolt Nagy (Puskás Akadémia)
Loic Nego (Le Havre)
Willi Orbán (RB Leipzig)
Attila Osváth (Paks)
Attila Szalai (Kasimpasa)
Gábor Szalai (Ferencváros)

Midfielders:

Áron Csongvai (AIK)
Bence Dárdai (Wolfsburg)
Bence Ötvös (Ferencváros)
András Schäfer (Union Berlin)
Callum Styles (West Bromwich Albion)
Dominik Szoboszlai (Liverpool)
Alex Tóth (Ferencváros)
Milán Vitális (ETO FC Győr)

Forwards:

Zsombor Gruber (Ferencváros)
Dániel Lukács (Puskás Akadémia)
Rajmund Molnár (MTK Budapest)
Roland Sallai (Galatasaray)
Barna Tóth (Paks)
Barnabás Varga (Ferencváros)