Schön strike sees off Slovakia

Before this, Hungary Men's first fixture of 2026, head coach Marco Rossi said his team will start 2026 afresh with a metaphorical blank sheet of paper. Not only that, Rossi believes it's very important to achieve a good result in these friendly matches being played in the first half of the year, starting with the contest against Slovenia.

With that in mind, Balázs Tóth started in goal, followed by the defensive quartet of Bendegúz Bolla, Willi Orban, Márton Dárdai and Milos Kerkez. A midfield three of Alex Tóth, András Schäfer and Milán Vitalis were tasked with supplying the ball to the forward line of Dominik Szoboszlai, Roland Sallai and central striker Dániel Lukács.

Hungary dominated possession for the first 10 minutes, but couldn't create any opportunities from it. Even worse, Slovenia looked dangerous on the counter-attack and even had the ball in the back of the Hungary net in the 12th minute, but after the VAR review, it was ruled out for offside.

In the 18th minute, Szoboszlai curled a shot over the top-left corner of the goal and ten minutes later, Sallai unleashed an eleven-metre effort after a neat pass from Kerkez on the left, but visiting goalkeeper Vekic saved well. The first half became more even as it wore on, but neither team was able to create any clearcut chances, so it was no surprise that the game was still goalless at the break.

Rossi made two half-time substitutions, Donát Bárány coming on for his international debut in place of Lukács and Attila Osváth replacing Bendegúz Bolla, and the former nearly made a dream start in the 51st minute, a Szolboszlai pass giving Bárány the chance to shoot from five metres, only for Vekic to save well and for Sallai's effort to be blocked on the rebound. A minute later, Sallai threatened once more but again Vekic was equal to it.

The game became much more lively in the second half, Hungary the more dangerous but Slovenia never out of contention when on the counter-attack, no more so than in the 60th minute, when Balázs Tóth had to save with his foot from Sporar's shot. A minute later, a huge opportunity was missed, Szoboszlai passing to Sallai in front of goal, who, instead of shooting, opted to delay, then shot from 9 metres wide of the top-right corner of the goal. Rossi then made two more changes, introducing another debutant in the form of Tamás Szűcs, while Damir Redzic also got a chance to prove himself. Redzic soon created a shooting opportunity for himself with some eye-catching tricks, but could only roll the ball wide of goal from 20 metres.

The 77th minute saw more new faces appear, Szabolcs Schön and Zsolt Nagy replacing Kerkez and Sallai. Two minutes later, Osváth's pass from the right bounced in front of Schön, who shot low from the left centre of the penalty area 11 metres out, the ball evading Vekic's dive and bouncing into the left side of the goal to give the hosts a late lead. Slovenia tried to rescue the situation in the closing stages, pushing their defensive line higher, but they were unable to fashion a sight of goal and thus it was Hungary who claimed a narrow win to start the year of 2026 positively.

Hungary's next match will be against Greece at 19:00 on Tuesday, again in the Puskás Arena.

HUNGARY 1–0 SLOVENIA (HT: 0–0)

HUNGARY: Tóth B. – Bolla B. (Osváth, 46), Orbán, Dárdai M., Kerkez (Zsolt Nagy, 77) – Tóth A. (Redzic, 63), Schäfer (Szűcs T, 63), Vitalís – Sallai (Schön, 77), Szoboszlai (Baráth, 87) – Lukács D. (Bárány, 46).
SLOVENIA: Vekic – Ratnik, Bijol, Drkusic (Zec, 62), Janza (Urbancic, 84) – Stojanovic (Karnicnik, 62), Cerin (Svetlin, 84), Elsnik, Sturm (Horvat, 84) – Vipotnik (Verbic, 62), Sporar (Matko, 91).
Goalscorer: Schön (79).