Hungary joint-top of group after victory in Azerbaijan

This 3-1 victory over Azerbaijan at the Bakcell Arena means Hungary are now joint-top of Group E along with Croatia on six points ahead of Tuesday’s match against Wales at the Groupama Aréna.

Head coach Marco Rossi made two changes from the home victory over Croatia in March for the game in Baku, Mihály Korhut replacing Tamás Kádár at left-back and László Kleinheisler coming in for Máté Pátkai in midfield.

Hungary began brightly, taking the lead in the 18th minute as the unmarked Willi Orbán placed a glancing header into the bottom left-corner of the net from close range following a Balázs Dzsudzsák free kick on the right.

Spurred on by a raucous home crowd, Azerbaijan went in the search of an equaliser and Hungary were forced onto the back foot, but they held firm. Indeed, Rossi’s charges even came close to doubling their lead three minutes before the break, László Kleinheisler’s shot from 25 yards flying just over the crossbar.

It was a determined Hungary which came out for the second half, numerous chances being created in ten minutes of serious pressure which the Azerbaijan defence was ultimately unable to escape from unscathed.

First, Kleinheisler drove just wide in the 48th minute. Then, a minute later, Dominik Szoboszlai was tripped just outside the box by Dmitri Nazarov, the resultant free kick from Dzsudzsák being beaten away by Salahat Agayev for a corner. Szoboszlai took the set-piece, the ball eventually falling for Kleinheisler whose blistering drive was blocked again by Agayev at the expense of a second corner.

This time, Dzsudzsák swung the ball in from the right, from which Ádám Szalai’s header was blocked by Agayev – his third save within minutes – but the rebound deflected off Botond Baráth to Orban who diverted the ball into the net from a yard out for his second goal of the evening.

This put Hungary firmly in the driving seat and they almost stertched their lead to three on the hour-mark, a crisply struck free kick from Dzsudzsák crashing off the bottom of the right post with Agayev a mere spectator. Come the 68th minute, though, it seemed as if Hungary might regret not grabbing the next goal as Azerbaijan scored a one of their own, Mahir Emreli on hand to roll the ball home after Péter Gulácsi had palmed a Ragabala Ramazanov effort into his path.

Any such fears of a home-team recovery were dispelled within a couple of minutes, however, when substitute Dávid Holman received a pass from Kleinheisler, moved the ball into the penalty area and firing an unstoppable drive into the top-right corner of the goal from 13 metres.

The goal understandably took the wind out of the sails of Azerbaijan’s efforts to salvage something from the match, the home side unable to seriously threaten Gulácsi’s goal in the remaining nineteen minutes plus injury time. The final score of 3-1 was a fair reflection of proceedings, the only blot on Hungary’s copybook being the late dismissal from the bench of head coach Marco Rossi by Dutch referee Kevin Blom.

Hungary are now joint-top of Group E with Croatia who defeated Wales 2-1 earlier on in the day in Osijek.

Azerbaijan 1-3 Hungary (HT: 0-1)

Goalscorers: AZB: Emreli (68’); HUN: Orban (17', 52’), Holman (70’)

Azerbaijan: Salahat Agayev – Maksim Medvedev, Badavi Hüsyenov, Rahil Mammadov, Anton Krivotsyuk – Richard Almeida, Gara Garayev, Dmitri Nazarov (Rufat Dadashov, 85’) – Mahir Emreli (Araz Abdullayev, 73’), Renat Dadashov (Agabala Ramazanov, 58’), Ramil Sheydaev

Hungary: Péter Gulácsi – Gergő Lovrencsics, Botond Baráth, Willi Orbán, Mihály Korhut – Ádám Nagy, László Kleinheisler (Máté Pátkai, 71’) – Balázs Dzsudzsák (Krisztián Németh, 85’), Dominik Szoboszlai (Dávid Holman, 57’), Dominik Nagy – Ádám Szalai