Hungary national futsal team miss out on European Championship

Sito Rivera’s Hungary took to the pitch in front of a packed 3,000 full-house in Koszalin on Tuesday afternoon as they sought to protect a slender 2-1 lead from the first match in Miskolc a fortnight ago and secure a place at next year’s European Championship in Slovenia.

There seemed little threat of a goal from Poland in the early minutes of the game, but that changed in the 6th minute when Rafał Franz took advantage of some slack defending to bring Poland level on aggregate and then, moments later and with Hungary reeling, edge them ahead in the two-leg tie.

With Sito Rivera calling for calm, Hungary responded well, Norbert Horváth cutting inside from the right before firing high into the net in the 8th minute to level the scores at 3-3 on aggregate. Six minutes later, they were level on the night and ahead in the tie, Zoltán Dróth spotting the goalkeeper off his line and scoring with a fine lobbed shot. Hungary then squandered a great opportunity to edge further ahead when they failed to score during a two minute period late in the half with Poland a man-down courtesy of Frank picking up a second yellow card; indeed, Poland even hit the woodwork themselves right at the end.

With Hungary 4-3 up on aggregate and with away goals counting in their favour, Poland were in need of something special to turn the tie around. They rode their luck a little when Hungary hit the crossbar early in the second half, but the Poles were level on aggregate again in the 26th minute. Hungary failed to clear on a number of occasions, the ball eventually falling in front of Sebastian Wojciechowski who rolled the ball home.

Poland went 4-2 up on the night and 5-4 ahead on aggregate in the 32nd minute through Michał Kubik, and a minute later things went from bad to worse for Hungary, Péter Komáromi picking up a second yellow card and Hungary a man-down for two minutes. Poland took full advantage, Kubik scoring for the second time in two minutes as he fired home with a fierce shot.

Badly in need of two goals and with only six and a half minutes remaining, Hungary opted for a flying goalkeeper. Zoltán Dróth almost got them back in the game in the 34th minute, his shot crashing off the crossbar, and then Ádám Hosszú had a shot blocked, but the risks inherent their attacking strategy were evidenced in the 36th minute when Dominik Solecki put Poland 6-2 up and 7-4 on aggregate when he scored into an empty net from inside his own box. Hungary rallied, scoring two late goals through Hosszú and Dróth, the latter’s long-range strike giving Hungary just 23 seconds in which to score the goal they required to see them through. Poland though, held firm to win 6-4 on the night and 7-6 on aggregate.

“I’m very disappointed; I wouldn’t have thought that we’d fail to go through despite scoring four goals. Unfortunately we paid a great price for our mistakes, this undoing our good periods in the match. The key moment was perhaps at the end of the first half; the score was level and we failed to take advantage of the Poles having a man sent off. When we had a man sent off in the second half the Poles made the most of it” said head coach Sito Rivera after the match.

Poland 6-4 Hungary (2-2)

Hungary: Gyula Tóth - Bence Klacsák, Péter Németh, Zoltán Dróth, Ákos Harnisch Substitutes: Marcell Alasztics, Richárd Dávid, János Trencsényi, István Gál, János Rábl, Péter Németh, Ádám Hosszú, Norbert Horváth, Péter Komáromi, Imre Nagy