Troy Parrott's goal at the end of the second-half snapped the national team's unbeaten run after 14 meetings.Continue reading
The Hungarian football team, preparing for the UEFA Euro 2024 starting next Friday, beat Israel 3-0 in a friendly match in Debrecen on Saturday.
Marco Rossi’s team took the initiative from the first minute, with Sallai scoring and assisting and Barnabás Varga scoring twice, and the ball found the net three times in 22 minutes. In the continuation, team captain Dominik Szoboszlai asked for a substitution because of a thigh injury, and the Liverpool legionnaire was treated by medical staff. There were still chances for the Hungarians in the second half, but the result remained the same.
Photo: MTI/Derencsényi István
Rossi, head coach of the Hungarian national football team, said after the match that there is no reason to worry about team captain Szoboszlai: the Liverpool player was only substituted as a precaution. The Italian coach said that the midfielder had asked for the substitution himself, precisely to avoid injury.
Speaking about the match, he stressed that he had promised earlier that their goal would be to win, and he feels that they did that in the first half, but less so in the second.
Ádám Nagy (L) and Idan Nachmias. Photo: MTI/Czeglédi Zsolt
Of course everyone can see that if we bring down Dominik Szoboszlai and Roland Sallai, they are difficult to replace. But overall I saw some positive things, we did very well in the possession phase, while in the first half we had to play against the ball for a short time and that was fine,”
said Rossi.
He added that after the break, the team’s performance was “rather intermittent,” but the focus of the game shifted to the footballers, who created situations and goal-scoring opportunities in the second half as well.
Milos Kerkez (R) and Eli Dasa. Photo: MTI/Derencsényi István
His Israeli counterpart Ran Ben Shimon said that their performance in the first 20 minutes was far from ideal, but he was able to substitute players who added to the team’s play later on.
We have to learn from this match as well, so we will analyze the footage and discuss with the players what we need to do. I also made mistakes, I still have to learn about the team and the players and learn lessons from the game, in the second half of which I think we played better football,”
said the Israelis’ new head coach.
The Hungarian national team will start at the European Championship in Germany next Saturday when they face Switzerland in the first round of Group A in Cologne.
Via MTI, Featured image: Facebook/MLSZ – Magyar Labdarúgó Szövetség