Match of the Year – Hungary  draw with Romania

Hungary and Romania shared a goalless draw in Budapest tonight which keeps both teams in contention for EURO 2016 qualification but both teams will go away feeling they could have snatched victory.

It was a fabulously intense atmosphere which welcomed the two traditional rivals onto the pitch, Hungary lining up in a 4-1-4-1 formation with Gábor Király in goal, Rolánd Juhász back from jinjury in defence and Ádám Szalai the spearhead upfront while Romania went with 4-2-3-1 as they looked to maintain top spot in the group.

Romania’s Claudiu Keșerü and Hungary captain Balázs Dzsudzsák had the first opportunities but their free-kicks both missed their targets, Keșerü’s drifting just over while Dzsudzsák’s was a couple of metres away from catching out Ciprian Tătăruşanu at his left post. Nice interplay from the visitors the saw Keșerü fashion another chance but his toe-poked shot was saved low by Király.

Romania were dominating territory with Hungary content to sit back and try to counter-attack and they did just that when Nikolic got in behind the dfence but shot over from a narrow angle. The most spectacular moment of the half was on the horizon, Szalai seeing his superb long-range volley tipped around the post by Tătăruşanu as the hosts looked to snatch the lead before half-time.