WU17: Seven goals and an important win against Bulgaria

Dorottya Schumi's U17 national team need to finish in the top two places in the group to be sure of qualifying for the Elite round of the WU17 European Championships, their rivals for those spots in Szombathely being Bulgaria, Kazakhstan and Poland. Furthermore, the four best third-placed teams in each group will also advance to the next stage in spring.

Hungary were dealt a blow before their first fixture against Bulgaria when illness caused FTC-Telekom football player Aliz Kocsis to withdraw just ahead of kick-off, her berth being taken by Mirtill Németh.

Nevertheless, the hosts took the lead in just the fifth minute through Emőke Pápai and she doubled her tally in the 23rd minute. Bulgaria barely had time to recover from that before Cecília Mészáros increased the lead to three and before the end of the half, Emőke Pápai was successful again in the 32nd minute, a four-goal advantage at half-time turning out to be fully deserved.

Bulgaria were employing a similar tactic to that which Hungary's most recent opponents Estonia and Republic of Ireland used, trying to defend and eliminate free space. This meant Schumi's players had plenty of possession in the second half and they used it so well that their forwards were repeatedly able to get behind the opposing defence. As a result, Mészáros struck again just before the hour mark and Pápai added two more to her personal total in the 75th and 93rd minutes to seal a thumping 7-0 victory.

"It was great to play on a good-quality pitch. This was the best match since this team has been together. We were disciplined until the end and we dominated the game. We stroked the ball around with belief and it's good for the girls to be able to step on to the pitch with confidence. Psychologically, this success means a lot. Now we have more than two days to prepare for the next match. We'll analyse the game between Kazakhstan and Poland and thankfully none of our players are injured so we can all look forward to Saturday", head coach Schumi told mlsz.hu after the final whistle.