Hungary Under-17s defeat Portugal in Euro opener

Hungary’s Under-17 national team began their European Championship campaign in Ireland against group favourites Portugal, left-back Roland Bekker and midfielder Gergő Ominger returning to the side after missing the elite round qualifiers earlier this spring.

Portugal began strongly, Hungary unable to get their passing game going with many balls going uncharacteristically astray. Indeed, Portugal’s best chances in the opening minutes came from Hungary conceding possession in dangerous areas. The pattern of play began to change mid-half, Hungary beginning to play more assuredly even if Portugal had the lion’s share of possession. Mihály Kata and Ákos Zuigeber both came close as the half wore on.

Hungary were more of an attacking threat after the break, defending stoutly and hitting Portugal on the counter-attack whenever possible, but they had to wait until late on to get the winner. The goal came in the 80th minute, substitute Márk Kosznovszky tucking the ball under goalkeeper Samuel Soares after receiving a pass from Ákós Zuigeber. Thereafter Portugal laid siege to the Hungarian goal, but the defence held firm as Hungary held out for victory.

“Portugal dominated early on, but we’d counted on them doing that and we handled the situation well”, said head coach Sándor Preisinger after the match. “We changed things around at half-time to try and give our wingers more support from the midfield, and this brought us stability. We knew we would have opportunities on the counter-attack, and thankfully we managed to take one of them. Portugal are a great side, and I’m proud of my players that they carried out our tactics and succeeded in implementing our plan. We’ve kept six clean-sheets in our last seven matches and that augurs well for the next matches”, he added.

Iceland defeated Russia 3-2 in the other group match. Hungary’s next match is against Iceland on Tuesday.

Hungary 1-0 Portugal (HT: 0-0)

Goalscorer: Kosznovszky (80’)

Hungary: Krisztián Hegyi – Gábor Buna, Patrik Posztobányi, Botond Balogh, Roland Bekker – Sámuel Major (Donát Orosz, 88’), Gergő Ominga (Dávid László, 67’), Mihály Kata, György Komáromi (Márk Kosznovszky, 67’) – András Németh, Ákos Zuigeber (Benedek Kalmár, 85’)