Regeneration the main focus for men's national team

Hungary's squad members were only able to enjoy the hospitality of the national-team training centre in Telki for one day during their last gathering of this year. Just over 24 hours after they congregated on Monday, the delegation set off for Armenia, the venue for Thursday's penultimate World Cup qualifier. Following their weekend league matches, all the members of the squad undertook regeneration work in the gym, with only Donát Bárány, who was struggling with a minor injury, training separately from the others. Before the gym session, one of the squad's two newcomers, 22-year-old Damir Redzic, was joined at the day's press conference by Alex Tóth, who is two years younger than Redzic, but has already earned seven international caps.

"A big dream of mine came true when I received a call-up to the full national team, so it is a source of great pride to be here with the squad in Telki," said Redzic, who plays for Dunaszerdahely in the Slovak top tier and revealed that his former Ferencváros teammate, Alex Tóth, was among the first to congratulate him on his selection. "I've been playing well lately, but I didn’t think about the call-up; I simply tried to work and play the same way as before. There are many great players in the national team, so I try to learn from them in training and that’s why I was really looking forward to this day," Redzic concluded.

"Against Armenia, I expect a similar match to the one we played against them at home," Alex Tóth admitted. "It's a tough match, in which it's very important to achieve a good result, given we want to secure second place in the group ahead of the last round of fixtures. I'm happy that I ended my most recent club match with a goal and an assist, because a performance like this can give me strength for the challenges ahead with the national team."

The squad trained in Telki on Tuesday morning before flying to Yerevan, the venue for Thursday's World Cup qualifier.