Hungary squad arrives in Spain ahead of Andorra clash

The Hungarian men’s national squad has arrived in Spain ahead of its FIFA 2018 World Cup qualifier against Andorra on Friday. Injury has ruled out Ádám Szalai, Ákos Elek and Szilveszter Hangya.

At the press conference which preceded the team’s departure head coach Bernd Storck stated that the team of the future is not yet ready now so the youngsters should be given as many opportunities to play against strong opponents as possible:

“The players who played against Russia have taken part in regeneration exercises while the others have completed full training sessions. Unfortunately Ádám Szalai’s knee injury has not improved enough and Szilveszter Hangya’s earlier injury has flared up again so neither of those players have stayed with the squad. A very important match awaits us and it’s important we commit to playing our own style and system in Andorra. Against Russia, we had 46% possession of the ball and played more than 600 passes but unfortunately we couldn’t convert our chances, so in any case we must take steps forward in this regard. In terms of the yongsters we should not criticise them but rather give them more opportunities to develop against strong opponents in international matches. On Monday we would have scored goals against a weaker team but that would not have aided our development”.

Mr Storck went on to say that the Andorra match will be uncomfortable because their opponent – similar to group rivals Faroe Islands – will try to break up the play and destroy the match as they did against the Swiss, another team for whom only victory would have been acceptable. As stated earlier by Hungary’s head coach, Elek Ákos can’t play in Andorra due to injury so he hasn’t travelled with the squad either.

The Hungarian national squad (surnames first)

Goalkeepers:
Gróf Dávid (Budapest Honvéd)
Gulácsi Péter (RB Leipzig)
Megyeri Balázs (Greuther Fürth)

Defenders:
Bese Barnabás (Le Havre AC)
Kádár Tamás (Dinamo Kijev)
Kleisz Márk (Vasas FC)
Kocsis Gergő (FC DAC 1904 Dunaszerdahely)
Lang Ádám (Dijon FC)
Tóth Bence (Puskás Akadémia FC)
Vinícius Paulo (Videoton FC)

Midfielders:
Dzsudzsák Balázs (al-Vahda)
Gyurcsó Ádám (Pogon Szczecin)
Kalmár Zsolt (Bröndby IF)
Kleinheisler László (Ferencváros)
Márkvárt Dávid (Puskás Akadémia FC)
Nagy Ádám (Bologna)
Nagy Dominik (Legia Warsaw)
Sallai Roland (Palermo)
Stieber Zoltán (1. FC Kaiserslautern)
Szoboszlai Dominik (Red Bull Salzburg)

Forwards:
Eppel Márton (Budapest Honvéd)
Balogh Norbert (Palermo)

Photo: MLSZ

Source: MLSZ – press release