U17 World Cup: Hungary draw with Australia to keep hopes alive

Three days after their opening 4-2 loss against Nigeria, Hungary again took to the pitch in the Stadio Olimpico in Goiania on Tuesday night, this time to face Australia, who had also lost their first match, 2-1 against Ecuador. On arrival to the stadium, the other Group B match between Ecuador and Nigeria was still in full swing, so the Hungarian delegation could watch from the stands as Nigeria turned around a 2-1 deficit to win defeat their South American rivals 3-2, thereby securing progression to the knockout stages.

Head coach Preisinger made five changes to the starting line-up which faced the Nigerians, the two goalscorers, Sámuel Major and György Komáromi, among those starting on the bench while Csaba Mester, Péter Baráth, Ákos Zuigeber, Patrik Posztobányi and Gábor Buna all started for the first time this tournament. The Australians also made changes, four in all, so both teams could claim to be refreshed.

The first ten minutes saw Australia dominate, keeping the ball in midfield and making it hard for us to gain control of the game. However, that all changed in the 14th minute when we edged in front, Zuigeber's free kick from the left expertly headed into the right side of the goal by Baráth.

Our next chance came as soon as the 17th minute when András Németh fired the ball at goal from Zuigeber's cut-back, only for the Australia goalkeeper to pushed the ball around the bottom-right corner of the goal. A minute later, suspicions arose of an Australian handball in their own box, one that was confirmed by VAR and resulted in Zuigeber dispatching the ensuing penalty calmly into the bottom-left corner of the net to double Hungary's advantage.

Back came Australia though, their first chance arriving from a corner when Botic's looping header dropped onto the crossbar, and their next one coming a few seconds later when Hungary goalkeeper Krisztián Hegyi grabbed the ball on the goal line after Teague's header had also hit the woodwork.

Preisinger's team were dealt a blow when Zuigeber's injury forced him off in the 28th minute, Sámuel Major replacing the forward. The two-goal deficit obviously forced Austrialia to become more adventurous, but that also meant there were opportunities to counter attack. Baráth shot over from distance in the 39th minute as did Australia soon after, the last action of the half being a goal for the Oceanic nation which was ruled out for offside.

Again, Australia started the second half in the ascendancy, pressing the Hungarian team at every opportunity and often denying our forwards any chance to attack. We defended deeply so there were often multiple yellow jerseys inside the Hungarian third of the pitch. In the 60th minute, András Németh finally recorded our first shot of the second half, the ball deflecting off a defender for a corner.

This was a rare threatening moment though and soon the opponent found joy in grinding down our defence with their regular possession. In the 68th minute, the video referee spotted a handball which had been missed by the on-pitch official and a penalty was awarded, which Botic confidently stroked past Hegyi to halve the arrears. Six minutes later, the scores were level, a foray forward for Hungary breaking down and punishment arriving in the form of an Australia counter-attack and Watt's precise finish into the left side of the goal from ten metres.

That equaliser didn't signify any alleviation in pressure on Hungary's goal though and in the 78th minute Australia missed a very presentable chance to take the lead. Five inutes from the end of normal time, Botic's strike was ruled out for offside and in the 90th minute Kirdar's free kick was spilt by Hegyi, but Hungary's keeper did well to block the rebound and his defence completed the clearance.

Thus, Hungary held on for a 2-2 draw ahead of Friday's night's final group fixture against Ecuador at midnight CET. A victory could be enough to secure our qualification from the group in second spot if Australia fail to beat group winners Nigeria, but a draw would certainly not be sufficient to stay in the competition.

"Unfortunately, the same thing happened again as against Nigeria; our plan worked for nearly seventy minutes and we led, but the opponent punished our mistakes", Sándor Preisinger said after the match. "My players kept going throughout, giving everything they had in them, so they can't be criticised from that point of view, but there were just a few tactical, positional errors and in the end, we lost points from a match in which victory was already in our hands. This is the World Cup, we are experiencing for ourselves that the pace at this level is much higher and that our opponents are putting more pressure on us than even at the European Championship, to the extent that our players have never experienced this before. The loss of points is frustrating but there is still one more match left and we still have the chance to progress, so over the next two days we'll prepare as well as we can for the game against Ecuador".

U17 World Cup, Group B, 2nd matchday

Australia 2-2 Hungary (HT: 0-2)
Australia: Pavlesic - Abdulahi, Courtney-Perkins, Mlinaric, Rawlins (Kirdar 65), Powell; Teague, Watts; Hammond, Botic, Peupion (Duzel 81)
Hungary: Krisztián Hegyi - Gábor Buna, Botond Balogh, Milán Horváth, Dávid László - Patrik Posztobányi, Mihály Kata, Péter Baráth - Ákos Zuigeber (Sámuel Major 28), Csaba Mester (Gergő Ominger 73), András Németh.