Nations League: two new faces in Hungarian men’s squad for November double-header

Head coach Marco Rossi has called up two potential debutants for Hungary’s final Nations League group-stage matches against the Netherlands and Germany later this month.

Nations League – Hungary: two debutants

Ferencváros’s Zsombor Gruber and German Bundesliga II club Braunschweig’s Levente Szabó can make their international bows in Hungary’s next two fixtures after being selected by Rossi to join his latest 24-man squad in November, while two other notable names on the list are Milos Kerkez and Loic Nego, both of whom have recovered from injuries which kept them out of October’s two Nations League fixtures. Furthermore, Dániel Gera, a late call-up to last month’s squad, retains his place.

Hungary Men’s freshest squad (surnames first):

Goalkeepers:
Dibusz Dénes (Ferencvárosi TC)
Szappanos Péter (Al Fateh SC)
Tóth Balázs (Blackburn Rovers)

Defenders:
Balogh Botond (Parma)
Botka Endre (Ferencvárosi TC)
Dárdai Márton (Hertha BSC)
Fiola Attila (Újpest FC)
Orbán Willi (RB Leipzig)
Szűcs Kornél (Plymouth Argyle)

Midfielders:
Bolla Bendegúz (Rapid Wien)
Gera Dániel (DVTK)
Kata Mihály (MTK)
Kerkez Milos (Bournemouth)
Nagy Ádám (Spezia Calcio)
Nagy Zsolt (Puskás Akadémia)
Nego Loic (Le Havre AC)
Nikitscher Tamás (Kecskeméti TE)
Schäfer András (Union Berlin)

Forwards:
Csoboth Kevin (St. Gallen)
Gruber Zsombor (Ferencvárosi TC)
Sallai Roland (Galatasaray)
Szabó Levente (Braunschweig)
Szoboszlai Dominik (Liverpool)
Varga Barnabás (Ferencvárosi TC)

“Apart from among the forwards, there’s no change to the squad in terms of those players who earned spots last time, because Kerkez and Nego had originally been in that squad too”, Rossi explained to mlsz.hu.

“Everyone has been playing regularly, with the exception of (Endre) Botka, whom we’ve called up because he is a useful member of the squad in terms of his capabilities and, moreover, he has always performed well for the national team.”

“In place of Dániel Gazdag and Ádám Martin we’ve called up Zsombor Gruber and Levente Szabó, because in Gazdag’s case his league championship season, for which he was injured, has finished now. Martin is unfortunately not in the best form, but they could easily become squad members again in March.”

“Their absences give us an exceptional opportunity to assess Gruber and Szabó at close quarters. We’ve known and followed both for a long time, because they earlier caught our attention when at Puskás Akadémia and MOL Fehérvár respectively. Szabó has performed well and scored goals for Braunschweig, while Gruber doesn’t always play for Fradi, but performs well whenever called upon, as we could see against Debrecen at the weekend.”

Nation League: next two matches

The Hungarian men’s national squad will meet in Telki on 11th November, before taking to the pitch in Amsterdam on 16th November to face hosts the Netherlands. They’ll then return to Hungary to entertain Germany in the Puskás Aréna three days later.

“We know very well that we’ll face two teams which are among the world’s elite national teams”, Rossi continued.

“We know exactly how strong they are and we’re familiar with their strengths, but we’ll try to produce our best performance possible against them and we’d be glad if these would go alongside good results too. One can pay a heavy price for even the tiniest mistake against teams as strong as these, but despite this, we’d like to play with bravery against the Netherlands and Germany too”, Rossi concluded.

read also – UEFA Nations League: Can Hungary beat Netherlands and Germany to Reach the Quarterfinals?