Women’s Under-17s: Hungary held by Greece in elite-round opener

2019. március. 23., 00:47 |

Dorottya Schumi’s side found themselves a goal down to Greece after just twenty seconds, and although they recovered to dominate throughout, they had to make do with a draw despite creating a host of goal-scoring opportunities.

Hungary and Greece took to the field at the Alcufer Stadion in Gyirmót just outside Győr with England having already put down a marker thanks to their comfortable 8-0 victory over Georgia in the opening group match a few hours earlier. With only one team progressing to the finals, the onus was therefore on both teams to secure victory in order to put pressure on the English.

To that end, Greece got off to a start beyond their wildest dreams, finding themselves a goal to the good after only twenty seconds. Ioanna Paptheoorou made the most of goalkeeper Petra Halla’s misplaced pass as she stole the ball ahead of Emőke Pápai on the edge of the box before rolling the ball into the corner of the net from eight yards.

Unperturbed, Hungary went straight on the offensive, Luca Papp firing over from close-range and Dorottya Czellér forcing Panagiota Vlasiadou into a fine save within the opening quarter of an hour. Szandra Ploner then saw her thunderous 30-yard shot cannon off the crossbar in the 18th minute, Fanni Nagy just unable to guide the rebound on target.

Vanessza Nagy was causing the Greeks no end of trouble with her energy and running, and it came as no surprise when she brought Hungary level with 24 minutes gone. Chesting down a cross-ball from Kata Buzás, the St Pölten player lashed a firm left-foot shot low into the net from just outside the box, giving Vlasiadou no chance.

Beatrix Fördős forced Vlasiadou into further saves either side of half-time, but as the game wore on, they found chances harder to come by, Greece seemingly content to sit deep and hold out. Hungary changed formation to force matters, Emőke Pápai stepping up into the midfield, and they came close to grabbing a winner, especially when Vlasiadou saved from Czellér with quarter of an hour left to play. Attacking until the end, a winning goal eluded them however, as they had to settle for a 1-1 draw.

“We dominated throughout but we committed a major error right at the start, and from there on in we were chasing the result. Our passing and play were unfortunately a little bit off, and we failed to convert several chances. The team is feeling a bit down. We need to regroup and prepare for England, which will be a completely different match. We’d like to prove that we are a good team,” Dorottya Schumi said following the match.

Hungary 1–1 Greece (HT:1–1)
Goalscorers: HUN: Vanessza Nagy Vanessza (24’); GRE: Ioanna Papatheodorou (1’)
Hungary: Halla Petra – Kata Buzás, Emőke Pápai, Beatrix Fördős, Szandra Ploner – Rebeka Róth, Luca Papp, Fanni Nagy (Csilla Savanya, 83’) – Dorottya Czellér, Vanessza Nagy, Réka Zsédely (Laura Palakovics, 70’)