Men’s U19s become fourth Hungary team to reach Euro Elite round

Hungary’s men’s Under-19 side have completed a clean sweep for their national youth teams by becoming the fourth out of four to progress from their European Championship’s Main round to the Elite round stage.

Drawn in a tough group including Italy, Switzerland and hosts Armenia, Michael Boris’ squad recovered from the early disappointment of a single-goal loss to Italy by beating Switzerland 2-1 thanks to a brace of goals from striker Bence Tóth and then Armenia convincingly, an own goal and a Bence Bíró strike handing Hungary a commanding 2-0 half-time lead which was supplemented in the second period by further goals from Márk Kleisz and Levente Szábó to ensure a comfortable 4-0 win. Italy topped the group with seven points with Hungary safely tucked in the second qualification position on six points.

Head coach Michael Boris said the following to mlsz.hu after the final match:

“Everyone concentrated and knew and fulfilled their tasks so this is what we have to thank for this success against Armenia and for the qualification too. At 2-0 up we didn’t push for a third goal, hence why the match wasn’t decided earlier but right at the very end we scored another two goals to secure the victory. The group has worked as a real team and over the course of the last week or more, the players have trusted each other, worked very hard and now the fruits of their work have been borne. I congratulate the whole team – everyone completed their work superbly”.

The other three of the four men’s and women’s U19 and U17 Hungarian national teams have already progressed from the UEFA European Championship Main round group stages to the Elite rounds taking place in spring 2017. The U17 men’s team triumphed over Denmark and Liechtenstein in the mini-tournament group they hosted to seal qualification alongside one of the pre-tournament favourites the Netherlands, while their female counterparts also hosted a group and performed impressively in remaining unbeaten during the process of qualifying alongside Poland.

The Women’s Under-19 produced one of the performances of the round by topping a tough group including Montenegro, Slovakia and favoured Denmark, an opponent they defeated 2-0 in their last group match to ensure progression as group winners with an unbeaten record.

Source: MLSZ – press release