Zsolt Nagy: It's most important to be defensively solid

Wednesday saw Hungary head coach Marco Rossi lead a morning training session in Telki, from which one member, András Schäfer, was absent, the Hertha BSC midfielder now unavailable for the forthcoming first two World Cup qualifiers due to a minor muscle injury. Roland Sallai trained separately from the other members of the squad this time due to a minor ailment.

Before the training session, one of the new members of the squad, Barna Tóth, joined Zsolt Nagy in answering journalists' questions:

"I'm a late bloomer, something I feel personally and in my career. It was when I signed for Paks that I first realised I might have a chance to make it to the national team and now this opportunity has become a reality," admitted the Paks striker. "I'm very happy to be here and I feel very good with the national team. I already knew many of the members of the squad, but those with whom I did not have a personal relationship have also welcomed me, so the atmosphere in Telki is great," Tóth explained.

Zsolt Nagy has experience of facing the Republic of Ireland from last year's warm-up match ahead the 2024 European Championship, on that occasion suffering defeat courtesy of a goal conceded in the 92nd minute in Dublin.

"Everyone feels the importance of this World Cup qualifier opener. We know the Irish - we played against them last year - and that match did not go as planned, because, despite us dominating and having more possession of the ball, we ended up losing. The most important thing is that our defence is in order; this is what we will focus on first and of course we want to avoid the mistakes we made back then," the Puskás Academy winger emphasised.