Rossi has been in charge of the national team since the summer of 2018.Continue reading
UEFA drew the 2024/25 UEFA Nations League group stage in Paris on Thursday evening, with the Hungarian national team at the top of League A, alongside the Netherlands, Germany, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The first matches will be played this autumn, writes m4sport.hu.
The Hungarian national team will face Germany in the autumn of 2024, after the European Championship in the summer, making it three meetings this year for Marco Rossi’s side with the Germans. The teams previously met in the 2021 European Championship and in the previous round of the Nations League, and the Hungarians have not lost once in those matches.
The Hungarian national team would have reason to fight back against the Netherlands, as they last met in 2013, when they lost 8-1 in Amsterdam in a match of painful memories. After the defeat, head coach Sándor Egervári submitted his resignation. The last time the Hungarian team won against the Netherlands was in 1984, and since then has a record of nine defeats.
The team is still unbeaten against the Bosnians, with two draws and two wins.
“At this level, in League A, it is impossible to play against weaker opponents, only strong rivals await us in the autumn. The Netherlands and Germany are the better teams on paper, while against the Bosnians we can expect an even playing field. However, paper does not always prove to be true on the pitch, and every match can produce surprises, both pleasant and unpleasant for us. It will be interesting to test our strengths against Germany again, and our clashes against the Netherlands will also be exciting,” mlsz.hu quoted the quick assessment of head coach Rossi.
Photo via Facebook/Marco Rossi
The teams will play round-robin matches in their respective groups on double matchdays in September, October, and November 2024.
A new feature of the 2024 edition is that while previously only the four group winners of League A qualified for the last four, the new edition will feature a back-and-forth quarter-final between the group winners and runners-up. The fourth-placed teams will be eliminated and the third-placed teams will play the runners-up from the league immediately below them.
If the Hungarian team can repeat their excellent performance of 2022, they could be in with a chance of progressing to the knockout stages.
The group stage play-offs and knockout stage matches will take place in March 2025, with the last four in June.
Although teams cannot qualify for the 2026 World Cup through the Nations League, it will indirectly kick-start the European qualification process for the top event in two years’ time. The winner will qualify for the World Cup, while the runners-up will play in a qualifying round. The latter will be joined by the top four group winners from the Nations League who did not finish in the top two in the World Cup qualifiers.
Via m4sport; Featured image via Facebook/MLSZ – Magyar Labdarúgó Szövetség