Late goal gives Hungary men's U17s three out of three in Euro group stage

Having already won their European Championship group courtesy of victories against Portugal and Iceland in their first two matches, Sándor Preisinger’s Hungary Under-17 side was much changed for the final group match against already knocked-out Russia, with only Milán Horváth and Sámuel Major remaining from the starting XI against Iceland.

Understandably, it took Hungary a while to get going, and by that time they were already a goal behind, Russia having taken the lead in the 20th minute. Bogdan Logachev’s cross from the right found Egor Shapovalov unmarked in the box, and the CSKA Moscow striker fired low past Gábor Megyeri from eight yards out. Undaunted, Hungary gradually came into the game, levelling in the 34th minute. András Németh was the scorer, running with the ball from the halfway line and – as the Russian defence backed-off – firing into the bottom-right corner from just outside the box.

Preisinger’s protégés took the lead in the 70th minute, András Németh sending Ilya Kuptsov the wrong way from the penalty spot after Vadim Konyukhov had upended substitute György Komáromi in the box. Russia restored parity in the 87th minute, Konyukhov’s corner being headed back across goal by Daniil Denisov, the ball breaking off the unfortunate Roland Bekker and into the net. Komáromi almost scored for Hungary almost immediately, his effort being blocked, and Russia twice hitting the crossbar following another Konyukhov corner, but Hungary prevailed, Németh meeting a Komáromi cross from the right to give Kuptsov no chance with his close-range shot.

Hungary finish the group on nine points with three wins from three, and now face Spain in the quarter finals on Monday.

“We’ve never lined up like this before so and this is perhaps why it took us some time to grow into the match”, said Sándor Preisinger afterwards. “We came back well from going behind. Both teams could have grabbed a winning goal late on; Russia also had chances, but luckily, we prevailed. I’m not so happy about the goals we conceded because they could have been avoided with better concentration. We’ve beaten a strong Russian team, but even sterner tests await. We now have two chances to reach our pre-tournament objective of qualifying for the World Cup, but with now only the elite teams left standing, we’ll have to be at our very best to have a chance”.

Hungary 3-2 Russia (HT: 1-1)

Goalscorers: RUS: Shapovalov (20’), Bekker (87’ own goal); HUN: Németh (33’, 90+4’), Major (71’ pen)

Hungary: Gábor Megyeri – Donát Orosz, Zoltán Dávid, Milán Horváth, Roland Bekker – Benedek Kalmár (Rajmund Molnár, 77’), Márk Kosznovszky, Gergő Ominger, Sámuel Major – Szabolcs Szalay (György Komáromi, 55’), András Németh