Dróth’s last-second heroics hand Hungary a place at the Euros – Photos, Videos

Hungary qualified for the 2016 Futsal European Championships in Serbia in sensational style yesterday by coming back to defeat Romania 4-3 on the night and 6-5 on aggregate thanks to a last-second winner from Zoltán Dróth.

Dróth’s striking partner Ákos Harnish had opened the scoring for Hungary as early as the 3rd minute with a neat finish from a half-cleared corner but he was sent off for handball inside the penalty area in the 24th minute and the resulting penalty was dispatched confidently by Romania’s Florin Matei. He then scored again to give the visitors the lead on aggregate, only for Ádám Hosszú to knock in Dróth’s pass at the back post and take the game into extra-time. Matei scored a third early on in the first period but just as it seemed that the tie had been all but decided, Dróth took centre-stage, first scoring with a low shot from 12 metres from Norbert Öreglaki’s sideways pass before heading in Norbert Öreglaki’s hopeful long-ball in the very last second of the match to spark wild celebrations amongst the players and a raucous crowd of 3,573 fans.

Sito Rivera, Hungary head coach:

I know how important this victory is to the Hungarian fans! My players fought til the end, they didn’t give up the struggle and there’s no better way to win this two-legged tie. We worked and practised so hard in these last few weeks – the players tried everything to bring this out on the pitch in these two matches and in every way we deserved this victory today. I have been a coach for thirty years and have seen these kinds of last-second winners before – this can happen in futsal. Even with six seconds to go and the ball in your defensive half you still have a chance, so I still believed something could happen.

Zoltán Dróth, Hungary match-winner:

It is a great thing to qualify for a European championships, particularly because a match against Romania is always important for our whole country. Winning it in the last few seconds though really is a fairytale. We battled right to the end and over the two games I think we deserved to win the tie. Even at 3-2 I felt our team still had some strength left but it would have been entirely normal for some people to have given up hope with just a couple of minutes to go. Over many years we have suffered bad luck but tonight made up for all that. The best possibility in those last few seconds was to hit the ball long in front and I was just there in exactly the right place to head the ball in. It wasn’t a move we’d practised but the point was it went in and we have qualified. It was a great experience to score right in front of those great fans of ours at that end of the pitch.

European Championship play-off second leg:

Hungary-Romania 4-3 after extra time (6-5 on aggregate)

Hungary: Tóth Gyula – Trencsényi János, Dávid Richárd, Lovas Norbert, Rábl János

Substitutes: Tihanyi Csaba (goalkeeper), Gál István, Öreglaki Norbert, Szeghy Szabolcs, Hosszú Ádám, Komáromi Péter, Németh Péter, Harnisch Ákos, Dróth Zoltán.

Romania: Iancu – M. Matei, Ignat, F. Matei, Lupu

Substitutes: Tonita (goalkeeper), Al-Ioani, Sotarca, Ignat, Panzaru, Raducu, Manya, Szöcs, Csoma, Stoica.

From the stand:

Photo: MTI

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters