Hungary Men: Bigger squad and more time to prepare

Marco Rossi will announce his squad on 12 May, when it will become clear on whom he'll be counting for the matches against Finland on 5 June and Kazakhstan four days later. It's no wonder that the head coach expects togetherness, for in addition to the fact that he'll be able to test his squad in these two warm-up matches before the autumn Nations League campaign, this time the group will be able to spend more days together than they normally would.

"We're taking advantage of the fact that most national championships end in mid-May," Marco Rossi told mlsz.hu. "After the season ends, each member of the squad will get a week of rest before we then start work in Telki on 26 May. We'll train from Tuesday to Friday, but this'll only be a kind of introduction, so the players won't have to sleep at the training centre. They'll come in the morning, we'll train in the morning and after lunch they can go home – of course, those who want to, can stay there. We'll also carry out physical assessments and see how much load each one will be able to handle after a long season."

Hungary's head coach added that this time will be special in that there'll be more squad members than usual, the plan being to call up four goalkeepers and 25 outfield players, but since the last round in the Premier League will only take place on 24 May, Milos Kerkez, Dominik Szoboszlai and Alex Tóth will join their teammates a week later, on 1 June.

"It's easy to imagine that there'll be a newcomer to the squad," Rossi continued. "Of course, only those who've been performing well for a long time can expect selection. If someone has one or two good matches, that wouldn't be enough; only players who are consistently playing good football can be considered. The case of Milán Vitalis is a good example. When we first called him up, everyone was asking who this guy was and why had he been selected. Well, it happened because this is where he belongs. Match after match, week after week, month after month, he performs outstandingly and has become one of the best not only in his team, Győr, but also in the whole Hungarian championship."

Hungary will host Finland in the Puskás Arena, then Kazakhstan in Debrecen and Rossi is very happy with both venues:

"The Puskás Arena is our home; we love playing there and the atmosphere is always fantastic. I'm sure that it will be the same at the Nagyerdei Stadium and I'm sure it'll make the people of Debrecen happy that we are playing there. 'Loki's' excellent performance in the Hungarian championship this year will only increase the enthusiasm of the fans. We played a match against Israel in Debrecen two years ago before the European Championship, which we won amidst a wonderful atmosphere, so we'll do everything we can to ensure it's no different this time against Kazakhstan."