Hungary Women Under 17s finish third in elite-round group

2018. március. 31., 23:51 |

Hungary's women's Under-17 team concluded their WU17 European Championship campaign at the elite-round stage with a single-goal defeat at the hands of Serbia in Gyirmót on Thursday.

Hungary had lost their opening elite-round fixture against fancied Italy 2-0 but followed that up with a confident 3-0 victory against Czech Republic. Therefore, from the point of view of qualification to the UEFA WU19 European championship finals in the summer, Italy's defeats of Hungary and Serbia meant the mediterranean nation had already secured the sole qualification place from this group and therefore there was nothing riding on this final match in Gyirmót.

However, Hungary were still motivated by finishing in second place in the group and in the driving rain they dominated the first half hour of the contest, albeit clear chances to score still eluded the home team. The hosts would live to rue that inability to create opportunities when a defensive error gave Plavcis a free run on goal and she rolled the ball past Hungary goalkeeper Anna Terestyényi to give Serbia the lead.

Thereafter, home dominance was resumed but the attacking smoothness on display three days earlier against the Czechs was missing and thus the deficit remained intact for the rest of the match, Hungary's best chance falling to Sára Pusztai in the 78th minute but her shot was saved by a sprawling Serb goalkeeper.

Serbia therefore took second spot in the group ahead of Hungary but Dorottya Schumi's side can look back on some progress having been made and on numerous positive moments over the three elite-round matches.

Dorottya Schumi, Hungary Women's Under-17 coach:

"Our attacking game didn't function in this match and our final pass was poor so there was no final product to our moves. There was no problem with our overall team play in the three elite-round matches and the team spirit was good too, but individual errors and ineffectiveness in front of goal meant we couldn't get the results we would have wanted".

Serbia 1-0 Hungary (HT: 1-0)
Hungary (surnames first): Terestyényi Anna - Nagy Virág, Bódai Viktória (Buzás Kata, 41.), Fördős Beatrix, Csolti Réka - Stefán Bernadett, Kovács Eszter, Pusztai Sára - Czellér Dorottya, Nagy Vanessza (Vachter Fanni, 49.), Szélpál Nóra (Papp Luca, 71.)