Hosts Switzerland edge past Hungary

The European Championship qualifying campaign hadn't started as planned for Hungary or their new head coach Alexandra Szarvas, a home draw with Azerbaijan and a 2-1 away loss against Turkey meaning only one oint was gained from the first two fixtures.

Nevertheless, Hungary aimed to spring a surprise against the host of next year's European Championship and started the game well, Evelin Fenyvesi's early shot saved by Switzerland's goalkeeper. The first half was even throughout, but our opponent took advantage of a defensive lapse in the 27th minute to take the lead through Alisha Lehmann.

To Hungary's credit they didn't let that setback dishearten them and instead equalised in the 56th minute, Dóra Zeller scoring from Henrietta Csiszár's pass. Unfortunately, the lead didn't long, just five minutes actually, when Zeller committed a foul inside the Hungary penalty area and Ramona Bachmann converted the resulting penalty. There was no further change to the scoreline in the last 30 minutes, thus Switzerland won the match 2-1.

The two teams will meet again early on Tuesday at the Új Hidegkuti Nándor Stadium in Budapest

"Overall, we played well against a much stronger team than us," Szarvas said after the match. "Our defence worked well and our opponent couldn't break through our backline, but we switched off and fell behind. Even at this point, we believed we could get back into the game and indeed, we scored a nice goal, but unfortunately the goal Switzerland scored from the penalty spot came at a very bad time and this noticeably disheartened the team. I feel a little was lacking in our attacking game; we rushed while in possession and were inaccurate with our passes, so we definitely need to improve on this for the next match. We're sorry we didn't manage to gain a point, but I'm satisfied with the mentality, the girls worked well and if we go into the second leg at home in the same way, we can potentially finish Tuesday's match in a more successful way".

Switzerland 2-1 Hungary (HT:1-0)
Hungary lineup (surnames first): Szőcs Réka - Németh Diána, Németh Hanna, Turányi Lilla (Nagy Fanni, 46), Öreg Cintia - Csiszár Henrietta, Fenyvesi Evelin (Pusztai Sára, 82) - Csiki Anna (Kaján Zsanett, 76), Papp Luca, Zeller Dóra (Zágor Bernadett, 82) - Pápai Emőke (Szabó Viktória, 58).
Goalscorers: SWI: Lehmann (27), Bachmann (61), HUN: Zeller (56)