Hungary Under-17s finish Telki Cup in third place

An added-time equaliser from substitute Mátyás Kovács gave Hungary a 1-1 draw with Cyprus in their final Telki Cup match this afternoon. Both sides had lost their opening two matches, but with Cyprus having lost 5-2 to the Czech Republic and 7-3 to Croatia, Kovács’ late strike was sufficient to see Hungary leapfrog Cyprus into their place on goal difference.

The tournament had begun well for Hungary as they raced into a 2-0 lead against Croatia in just over quarter of an hour of their opening match on Thursday. Dániel Németh had opening the scoring in the second minute and when Kevin Török doubled the lead in the 16th as he headed home a Zalán Kerezsi cross, all appeared rosy for the new-look Under-17 side. Croatia came back strongly in the second half though, Barko Barisic reducing the arrears before Tomislav Duvnjak equalised with a long-range shot moments later. Worse was to follow, Barišić heading Croatia ahead in the 63rd minute and Noel Bilić adding a fourth with eight minutes left to play as Hungary fell to an opening day 4-2 defeat.

Matchday Two saw a reverse in first-half fortunes for Hungary as they found themselves 2-0 down against the Czech Republic going in at the break. Márk Helembai had already prevented the visitors from taking the lead in the 15th minute but the goal duly came, Filip Vacheta breaking the deadlock following a corner on the left midway through the half. The Czechs continued to press and the pressure paid off some seven minutes before half-time as Márk Csinger was penalised for a foul in the penalty area and Jakub Drozd converted the resultant penalty. Antal Németh made numerous changes for the second half but although Hungary were more of an attacking threat, they failed to breach the Czech rearguard as the match finished 2-0.

For today’s closing match against Cyprus, Németh started with numerous players who hadn’t featured so much in the first two games, three matches in five days in the searing midsummer heat being too much to ask of his players. That said, Cyprus appeared to initially deal with the conditions better, albeit both sides struggled in the 37° heat. Lakovos Laos gave the Cypriots the lead in the 31st minute, heading home from a corner from the right, and it was to be a lead they held until second-half injury time. Hungary were increasingly active in attack after the break, yet the Cyprus defence held firm and it was the visitors who came closest to scoring again. Just when it seemed that Hungary would finish the match empty-handed though, substitute Mátyás Kovács popped up to curl the ball home from 14 yards and put his side level with Cyprus on one point, and ahead of them on goal-difference to secure third place.

Speaking to mlsz.hu after the tournament, head coach Antal Németh said that: “Even at half-time against Croatia we felt on the bench that the match wasn’t over; the Croatians physical edge was apparent. Today we fought a lot better than in the previous two matches, but our play was still some way short of what we produced in the first half against Croatia. We’ve played three matches over the past five days and unfortunately there were important aspects missing from our play in each of those matches; this was reflected in the results. Our shortcomings came to the fore; we have room for improvement in the run-up to our competitive matches”, he said.

2019 Telki Cup

8th August

Hungary 2-4 Croatia (HT: 2-0)

Hungary: Márk Pataki - Gergő Varga, Kevin Török, Márk Csinger, Barna Benczenleitner - Dominik Sztojka, Ágoston Bényei (Artúr Horváth, 54’), Tamás Kispál (Vajk Gazdag, 78’) - Mátyás Kovács (Damir Redzic, 78’), Dániel Németh, Zalán Kerezsi (Roland Bedő, 68’)

Goalscorers: HUN: Németh (2’), Török (16’); CRO: Barišić (47’, 63’), Duvnjak (49’), Bilić (82’)

10th August

Hungary 0-2 Czech Republic (0-2)

Hungary: Marcell Kovács - Gergő Varga (János Mayer, 70’), Márk Csinger, Attila Szujó, Márk Helembai (Barna Benczenleitner, 46’) - Artúr Horváth (Tamás Kispál, 46’), Dominik Sztojka (Ágoston Bényei, 77’), Vajk Gazdag (Kevin Török, 46’) - Roland Bedő (Damir Redzic, 61’), Dániel Németh (Levente Doncsecz, 61’), Mátyás Kovács (Zalán Kerezsi, 46’)

Goalscorers: Vacheta (23’), Drozd (38’ pen)

12th August

Hungary 1-1 Cyprus (0-1)

Hungary: Márk Pataki - Gergő Varga (Márk Csinger, 35.), Attila Szujó, János Mayer, Márk Helembai (Barna Benczenleitner, 60’) - Artúr Horváth (Dániel Németh, 46’), Ágoston Bényei (Tamás Kispál, 81’), Kevin Török - Damir Redzic (Roland Bedő, 60’), Levente Doncsecz (Vajk Gazdag, 81’), Zalán Kerezsi (Mátyás Kovács, 60’)

Goalscorers: HUN: Kovács (90+2’); CYP: Laos (31’)