Women lose opening encounter in Cyprus Cup

Beginning their preparations for the spring at the Cyprus Cup for the fourth year running, the Hungarian women’s national team faced a Thailand side which is preparing for this summer’s World Cup and ranked 29th in the world, at the Antonis Apadopoulos stadium in Larnaca.

The first real chance of the match fell to Hungary in the tenth minute, Zsanett Jakabfi just failing to reach an Anita Pinczi cross from the right. Thailand, however, took the lead a minute later, Thongsombut the scorer. Galvanised by their early goal, Thailand began to look more dangerous thereafter, Hungary captain Henrietta Csiszár also going off with an injury in the 20th minute, being replaced by Diána Csányi. Evelin Mosdóczi twice came close around the half-hour mark, but Thailand doubled their lead just before the half-time whistle through Srimanee.

The second half began with a Diána Csányi corner which forced the goalkeeper into a save, but the Thai’s soon got a third goal on the counter-attack, Thongsombut supplying the finishing touch. Fanni Vágó and Evelin Mosdóczi combined well in the 70th minute but were unable to tee up Dóra Zeller as the goalkeeper dealt with the danger. Hungary continued to create chances, but it in the end it was Thailand who added to their tally, Nildamrong scoring after Réka Szőcs had failed to hold onto a shot. Hungary continued to press for a consolation goal right until the end, Zsanett Jakabfi coming closest but unable to find the net.

“We created chances but couldn’t finish them. They qualified for the World Cup for a reason; they are capable of finishing a few of their chances and their players can change rhythm very well, which is difficult to deal with, as well as being capable of such individual skill in key situations which lead to goals”, said head coach Edina Markó after the match. “We felt we played relatively well; we played much of the second half in our opponents’ half, but it takes time to work on our attacking game and one training session isn’t sufficient. It didn’t help that Henrietta Cziszár had to come off so early and we had to change our formation. We need to look ahead. We’ve got a training session before the Italy match and we need to be more compact against them. It’ll be important that we don’t cede too much space to them” Markó added.

Thailand 4-0 Hungary (HT: 2–0)
Hungary: Réka Szőcs - Evelin Mosdoczi, Viktória Szabó, Lilla Turányi, Anita Pinczi (Anna Csiki, 80’) - Henrietta Csiszár (Diána Csányi, 20’), Zsófia Rácz, Evelin Fenyvesi, Dóra Zeller (Bernadett Zágor, 72’) - Zsanett Kaján (Fanni Vágó, 64’), Zsanett Jakabfi (Petra Kocsán, 89’)

In the group’s other match Italy defeated Mexico 5-0.

Cyprus Cup fixtures:

27 February: 17:00: Thailand-Hungary
1 March: 17:00: Hungary-Italy
4 March: 17:00 Mexico-Hungary
6 March: play-off match