Hungary U17s lose Euro goalfest with Poland

Hungary men's U17 national team started the U17 European Championship in excellent fashion by defeating Wales 3-0 on Wednesday, so hopes were high going into their second group fixture against Poland, who themselves had started impressively with a 5-1 defeat of Republic of Ireland.

Hungary head coach Belvon made two changes to the starting lineup which prevailed against Wales, Levente Kubicsek replacing Csaba Hornyák while Szilárd Szabó started in place of Zétény Varga. In contrast, Poland made only one change to their starting lineup which triumphed over Ireland.

As expected, Poland employed an aggressive pressing strategy in the Hungarian half from the first minutes and tried to recover balls high up by closing down our players quickly. Hungary cleared the ball well until the eighth minute but then one mistake was enough for the visitors to score a goal, Poland regaining possession and swiftly moving to within range of goal before Skoczylas latched on to a pass in the left channel, advanced and slid the ball into the net from close range.

Szilárd Szabó had Hungary's first chance of the game when he pushed the ball past a defender, but his shot flew past the near right post. In the 27th minute, the Poles were again in a position to score after possession was given away by the hosts, but Wolski's shot from a tight angle was saved by Yaakobishvili. Poland didn't have to wait long to double their lead though, Yaakobishvili superby saving Wolski's effort but unable to keep out Sznaucner's shot following a corner seconds later.

Despite with a two-goal lead, Poland didn't sit back or change their tactics, but continued to dominate individual battles, constantly regaining possession and restricting Hungary to possession in harmless areas where they could then exert pressure. They extended their lead to three goals in the 52nd minute when Huras knocked a rebound into the net and that point the game looked over.

However, Hungary, to their credit, found a way back into the game through substitute Zétény Varga's 55th-minute shot into the bottom right corner of the Poland net from Attila Girsik's pass, then when Szilárd Szabó's shot cannoned off a post and fell to Benedek Simon, who converted from five metres out to reduce the deficit to one.

This inspired Hungary to chase a hitherto unlikely equaliser while they were in the ascendancy, but with this opportunity came risk and Belvon's team were duly punished when Poland's Tomzczyk restored the two-goal difference at the end of a 76th-minute counter attack and Borys repeated the feat four minutes later. Again, Hungary battled to mount a comeback and although Hunor Németh's shot was adjudged not to have crossed the goal line, Csaba Molnár did pull one goal back for Hungary late on. However, the home team ran out of time to reel in Poland, ultimately losing 5-3.

In the other match of the group on Saturday, Republic of Ireland beat Wales 3-0 and will now do battle with Hungary in the Pancho Aréna on Tuesday to see which the two teams will join Poland in the last eight of the competition.

Hungary 3-5 Poland (HT: 0-2)
Hungary: Áron Yaakobishvili – Attila Girsik, Ádám Umathum, Dominik Kaczvinszki, Levente Kubicsek (Noel Lengyel, 63) – Szilárd Szabó, Hunor Németh,
Noah Fenyő, Martin Kern (Csaba Molnár, 46), Ádám Bagi (Zétény Varga, 46) – Simon Benedek.
Poland: Piekutowski – Szala, Orlikowski, Krzyzanowski (Gurgul, 59) – Kolanko, Borys, Sznaucner, Rejczyk, Wolski (Kurowski, 59) – Skoczylas, Huras
(Tomczik, 68).