Rossi: We need to be perfect against Germany

Tuesday morning saw Rossi hold Hungary's official pre-match training session in Weiler in preparation for his team's group A match against Germany, and by early evening, he was ready for the pre-match press conference in tomorrow's venue Stuttgart.

Tobias Paintner, the mayor of Weiler Im Allgäu, the town which has hosted Hungary so far this European Championship, visited his guests' training session on Tuesday, before Rossi and his team's players signed the city's memorial book. In the last training session before Wednesday's match against Germany, all but two players trained - those two were Loic Nego and Botond Balogh, who did individual work separately.

"We were very disappointed to lose the first game, especially because of the first-half performance. We played better in the second half, but there were still some mistakes," Rossi admitted. "Two of the three goals were our mistakes and we paid the price for that. Germany are the toughest possible opponent to play against at this European Championship and our opponent is better than us, it must be said. No one can be offended by this. We have to play a perfect match and everyone has to give 100 percent. We saw in the match against Scotland what this German team is capable of; they dominated their opponent from beginning to end. We know what to expect and it will be very difficult, but I hope we can grab a point tomorrow and keep our hopes of advancing from the group. This German national team isn't the same as it was three years ago; some of the players are different and they have a great national-team coach."

Meanwhile, András Schäfer scored a goal in the European Championship against Germany in 2021 and according to the Berlin-based midfielder, the team needs to rediscover the characteristics it has shown many times over the years which have helped them achieve good results against higher-ranked teams.

"Germany have a lot of good players, so it would be a mistake to single out one or two of them. We mustn't focus on individuals, but on ourselves and we must go into the match together as a team. Nobody played well against Switzerland, so we have to find our identity as a team. Three days ago, everyone's performances improved in the second half, so we have to feed off these moments. We have to bring out that side of us that made our opponents dislike playing against us until now," Schäfer explained.

Defender Ádám Lang also took part in the press conference and added that the squad had thoroughly discussed the mistakes against Switzerland and that they simply cannot afford to repeat them.

At Germany's press conference on Tuesday, Rossi's counterpart Julian Nagelsmann claimed they have perfectly analysed the Hungarian national team, and that they expect Marco Rossi's team to produce the performance seen in the second half against Switzerland.

"We know the Hungarians well, we know how they play when they have the ball and when they don't have the ball. Against Switzerland, they weren't present on the pitch in the first half, but in the second period they played very solidly and physically and were able to put their opponent under pressure. With Hungary, everyone knows their role on the pitch and their team has been together for a long time. We want to win, it doesn't matter by what margin, because it's only important that we get the three points," Nagelsmann concluded.