Rossi: Heart drove us to defeat Serbia

"We need two more points for Euro qualification, so I wouldn't say we've achieved our aims", Rossi admitted. "Of course, we're 90% of the way there, so we'd need to suffer some terrible bad luck to fail to qualify. We've no big secret - the secret is that the team fights with heart. We can thank our attitude and humility that we've come this far. I said to the (MLSZ) President (Sándor Csányi) jokingly that I aged two years (during this match) but I think there were many in the tribunes going through this too.

We suffered and the opponent created many goalscoring chances, but we were prepared for that. However, we came out on top in today's match not because of our technical knowledge, but because of our heart. Today, many players have exceeded their own limits, both technically and physically. The whole match was beautiful; I still think that Serbia are the strongest team in the group, yet we managed to beat them home and away, which is thanks to the aforementioned heart and mentality. I don't know what the conditions will be when we play in Lithuania - it'll be approximately 4-5 degrees and now they've beaten Bulgaria 2-0. They should not be underestimated, because they'll play with individuality and quality. If we win, maybe I'll recover the two years I've aged today! Tonight was the first of four finals. We'll try to win every next game, but it isn't easy, and we have to remember we've put a lot into today's victory. We'll start the regeneration process tonight. I remember that in the Nations League we played four matches in 10 days with the same squad, but our technical and medical staff did a fantastic job then, so I'm not worried about that now".

In response to a journalist's question, Marco Rossi also emphasised how well the defence had performed, even without Willi Orbán:

"I think that Ádám Lang played the match perfectly. A key player such as Orbán could only be replaced by someone who is a guaranteed performer. Fiola and Botka also performed fantastically and produced the level that can be expected from them. And I never doubted Nego; just remember how much criticism was thrown at me when he was selected despite being on the bench at Vidi. I have a fault in that I look at my players first as people and then as footballers. Loic was going through a difficult time, but what would have happened if I hadn't selected him? Bolla's case is similar. Respect is very important to me; this is the primary consideration, in addition to the interests of the national team", Rossi added.