Rossi: We need to pick ourselves up and look forward

The Hungarian national team kept their game goalless against favourites Portugal in the Puskás Arena until the 84th minute, but the reigning European champions took the lead with a deflected goal and sealed an ultimately comprehensive win in the final few minutes. Hungary head coach Marco Rossi said the last part of the game should be analysed, but that from now on we should look ahead to the remaining two group matches.

"I was happy with our game until the 83rd minute, but then unfortunately we conceded three goals," Rossi began. "Maybe it was my fault we risked too much. I’m not sad about the overall performance, but I’m disappointed with the result because there wasn’t as much difference between the two teams as the result would indicate. We weren’t lucky, especially in the 84th minute when the ball took two deflections and from that, they scored. This, of course, happens when a team defends deeply. During the break, I told the players that we need to play more boldly if we want to create goalscoring opportunities. We need to respond to this defeat, we need to show that we are men and that we can stand up. Hungary needs to be represented in the best possible way, so now is not the time to cry, as there are still two matches left in the group stage. If we play as well as the audience encouraged us to, we could win matches. The players have given it their all, too, in my judgment, but what happened in the last ten minutes requires analysis".

From among the players, Attila Szalai and Roland Sallai also pointed out that it was a wonderful feeling to play football against Portugal in such a fantastic atmosphere.

"We're glad we have such fantastic fans; they created an incredibly good atmosphere in the stadium and it was a wonderful feeling to play football in such circumstances. The goals we conceded were from small errors. We have to do more and we will try again on Saturday, so now we have to focus on regeneration", Attila Szalai commmented.

“I feel unfortunate because we fought and gave everything we had, and we weren’t far away from scoring. We have shown that we have the quality and strength in the team, so this needs to be carried forward to the next matches. We have one of the best sets of fans in the world behind us and we thank them for their encouragement,” Sallai added.