New-look Hungary Women's squad aiming for another win

On October 23, at the Illovszky Stadium, Edina Markó's team will host the Slovak national team in their penultimate fixture of the European Championship qualifying campaign on October 23rd in the Illovszky Stadion, home of Vasas SC. After two away matches, Hungary will now play at home and although they'll miss some star name, they'll benefit from the presence of several emerging talents who played in last month's away dates.

"After the games in Sweden and Latvia, we were confident that our situation would be easier at home, but unfortunately we are missing players again now too, and the match is still a numbe of days away," Markó told mlsz.hu.

The national team will meet on October 19th and will take the opportunity to hold four practice sessions before the match four days later.

“MTK and Fradi players who couldn’t previously travel abroad with us can join us now. Fanni Vágó has also returned to the national team after illness, but we have to do without Diána Csányi as she has just restarted training. Zsanett Jakabfi won't join us either so it’s not an ideal situation, but as I’ve said before, this is our task that we have to solve", added Hungary Women's long-serving head coach.

Last month's two away fixtures saw the team heavily defeated by Sweden, but recover to gain three points in Latvia, leaving them lying third in qualifying group 5 with seven points. Slovakia are fourth on four points, but have played two fewer matches.

UEFA regulations allow the match to be played in front of spectators and the stadium can be filled to 30% of the capacity whilst maintaining the required social distancing measures. Tickets will cost 500 forints and can be purchased online. We will provide information about the start of ticket sales later.

For last month's matches abroad, Markó invited several young players as late replacements and all of them impressed to some extent. On this basis, the likes of Sára Pusztai (FTC-Telekom), Fruzsina Schildkraut (DVTK) and Virág Nagy (FTC-Telekom) have been called up again, as have Luca Papp (FTC-Telekom) and Fanni Nagy (DVTK). Nevertheless, Markó is once again trying to prepare for everything, so has named six reserve players to supplement the 23-woman squad.

"We hope that the fans will be hungry to see national-team matches and will therefore visit the stadium, since our national teams have not been able to play in front of spectators for a long time now," explained Markó, who also noted in regard to their Slovak opponents that Hungary will face a team of similar strength and style.

Markó's side will conclude its campaign when they welcome Iceland to Hungary on 1st December.

Women's squad to take on Slovakia:

Goalkeepers
Réka Szőcs (MTK Hungária FC)
Barbara Bíró (Haladás-Viktória FC)
Fruzsina Schildkraut (DVTK)

Defenders
Laura Kovács (SC Sand)
Lilla Turányi (FC Bayer 04 Leverkusen)
Evelin Mosdóczi (FTC-Telekom)
Anna Csiki (Kopparbergs / Göteborg FC)
Hanna Németh (Indiana University Athletics)
Barbara Szemán-Tóth (MTK Hungária FC)
Virág Nagy (FTC-Telekom)
Fanni Nagy (DVTK)

Midfielders
Petra Kocsán (MTK Hungária TC)
Evelin Fenyvesi (FTC-Telekom)
Henrietta Csiszár (FC Bayer 04 Leverkusen)
Luca Papp (FTC-Telecom)
Zsófia Rácz (Astra-Alef HFC-Üllő)
Dóra Zeller (FC Bayer 04 Leverkusen)
Sára Pusztai (FTC-Telekom)
Zoé Magyarics (Clube de Albergaria)

Forwards
Bernadett Zagor (SKN St. Pölten)
Fanni Vágó (FTC-Telekom)
Loretta Németh (MTK Hungária FC)
Dóra Süle (SC Sand)

Reserves
Boglárka Horti (Haladás-Viktória FC)
Kinga Siklér (FTC-Telekom)
Beatrix Fördős (Progress-Victoria FC)
Emese Szakonyi (Astra-Alef HFC-Anvil)
Emőke Pápai (MTK Hungária FC)
Dorottya Czellér (FTC-Telekom)