Rossi: Netherlands are stronger than Germany!

Hungary take on the Dutch national team, ranked seventh in the FIFA world rankings, at 20:45 CET on Friday 11th October in Budapest's Puskás Arena. At the press conference before their latest Nations League fixture, the journalists in attendance quizzed winger Zsolt Nagy and his national-team head coach Marco Rossi:

"This Dutch national team is stronger than their German counterparts, based on the FIFA world rankings. Tomorrow, they'll do everything to dominate and will dictate the pace," Rossi explained. "We have to take advantage of those situations when we can make their lives difficult. We mustn't be drawn into their game and we can't give them space in midfield, but we will have to defend tomorrow. Ever since football has been football, the stronger team has always dominated and, according to form on paper, the weaker team has been put under pressure. The Dutch national team is full of players who play for top teams in top leagues. As for Ronald Koeman, he had a great career as a player and has coached big clubs. Obviously, when someone is in charge of a national team like the Netherlands, there's a lot of pressure on him, so he'll definitely want to prove himself tomorrow."

Rossi added that Botond Balogh isn't fully healthy for the time being, because he sustained an injury at Parma that caused him to miss training until today.

"I'm glad that Ádám Szalai is back!", Zsolt Nagy meanwhile stated in response to a journalist's question. "He has the same aura as he did when he was a player; he motivates everyone and we all pay attention to him. We have a difficult match ahead of us, against a top team, in front of our home crowd, so we must pay close attention to everything against the Netherlands! Even if everyone gives their best, we will still have a very tough match. Only if we work together as a team will we have a chance to achieve a good result!"