Gera names U21 squad for upcoming Euro qualifiers

The Hungarian U21 national team has been placed in a tough European Championship qualifying group, which includes the recent U21 European champions Germany as well as Poland, Israel, Latvia and San Marino. The winner of the group, as well as the best second-placed team from the nine groups, will progress directly to the tournament co-hosted by Romania and Georgia, while the remaining eight group runners-up will be drawn in four play-off ties to decide who takes the remaining four European Championship spots.

Zoltán Gera's squad will host Israel in the first qualifier on 2nd September before travelling to play San Marino on 7th September. Those named in Gera's latest squad include ten footballers who were members of the squad which played in this year's European Championship which was co-hosted by Hungary and Slovenia. Players born after January 1, 2000 can participate in this new edition but in Gera's first squad there are several players born in 2002, while Milos Kerkez was even born as recently as in 2003.

Ruled out of these first fixtures through injury are Parma defender Botond Balogh and Donát Bárány.

"Due to this being a new edition of the competition, it's natural that there are many new players in the squad, but the significant advantage is that we have already worked with this national team in the spring, so we know their abilities well and they're also aware of our expectations", Zoltán Gera told mlsz.hu. "We have primarily invited footballers who are playing regularly for their club and I'm curious to see how the newcomers will perform in these days of preparation. I think it's very important that we start the campaign well, so defeating Israel can give us a lot of momentum going into the next game. Our first opponent has recently appointed a new manager, which makes it somewhat difficult to know how they'll play, but anyway we’re mainly working on our own game and trying our best to prepare for next Thursday’s match".

The match against Israel on 2nd September will be played in Gyirmót at 17:30 CET, while the clash on 7th September against San Marino will be played at 20:30. M4 Sport will broadcast both matches live.

The Hungarian U21 national squad for the fixtures against Israel and San Marino:

Goalkeepers:
Krisztián Hegyi (West Ham United)
Martin Auerbach (Csákvár)
Dániel Veszelinov (DAC)

Defenders:
Benedek Varju (MTK Budapest)
Olivér Tamás (Paks)
Attila Mocsi (Haladás)
Kornél Szűcs (DVTK)
Dániel Csóka (AFC Wimbledon)
Dominik Bony (Ferencváros)

Midfielders:
Erik Kusnyír (DVSC)
Csaba Bukta (Altach)
András Csonka (Gyirmót)
Sándor M. Hidi (Vasas)
Milos Kerkez (AC Milan)
Márió Zeke (Gyirmót)
György Komáromi (Puskás Akademia)
Norbert Szendrei (MOL Fehérvár)
Áron Csongvai (Újpest FC)
Szabolcs Mezei (MTK Budapest)
Péter Baráth (DVSC)

Forwards:
Tamás Kiss (SC Cambuur)
Szánthó Regő (Ferencváros)
András Németh (KRC Genk)
Alen Skribek (ZTE)