According to mlsz.hu, Hungary reached their fourth consecutive FIFA World Cup – and third under the leadership of Lajos Baróti – by virtue of topping a tough, three-team qualifying group which included Austria and East Germany. In keeping with the impressive nature of Hungarian football in the 1960s, it was a talented squad that Baróti took to England, one which could even afford to do without Újpest star János Göröcs, who at that time played in the same position as Ferencváros great Flórián Albert. Göröcs’ clubmate Antal Dunai also missed out through injury but the likes of playmaker Zoltán Varga and dangerous forwards Ferenc Bene, Lajos Tichy, Lajos Puskás and János Farkas were all present in a highly-skilled squad.

However, the opening match at Old Trafford, Manchester didn’t go to plan at all. Goalkeeper Antal Szentmihályi was concussed in a collision with teammate Gyula Rákosi in the warm-up and was still groggy when a 2nd-minute corner came in and José Augusto headed into the Hungary net. Albert’s header on 30 minutes rebounded off the crossbar before the ame player slid in Bene who equalised on the hour mark. The waves of attacks had taken their toll on Hungary though, and it was Portugal who drew blood next, José Augusto scoring his second header of the match in the 67th minute from a rebound. José Torres put the seal on a 3-1 win with a 90th-minute header from a Eusébio corner.

With their next opponents in Group C being holders Brazil at Goodison Park, Liverpool, Magyar fans could have been forgiven for thinking their chances of progression were already over, but instead their hopes were reignited in glorious fashion.

Ferenc Bene was the catalyst, weaving his way as he did through the Brazil defence in just the fourth minute before slotting the ball inside the Brazil goalkeeper’s left post for a truly memorable World Cup goal. Tostao’s fine finish into the top-right corner of József Gellei’s goal (the Ferencváros keeper having replaced Szentmihályi) levelled matters ten minutes later but János Farkas’ outstanding low volley in the 65th minute and Kálmán Mészöly’s penalty after Bene had been upended handed Hungary an extremely popular 3-1 victory, the capacity crowd singing their appreciation after the final whistle for the marvellous football on display.

Brazil’s subsequent defeat to Portugal left Hungary needing only a point from their final group match against Bulgaria at Old Trafford to qualify for the quarter-finals, but they were made to work hard to get what they wanted, Georgi Asparukhov putting the group’s basement team ahead after only a quarter of an hour. A fortunate own goal from Hungary’s perspective by Ivan Davidov restored parity in the 42nd minute and there was still time before the break for Mészöly to blast a second goal past the Bulgaria goalkeeper following a Bene corner and put Hungary ahead at the break.Ten minutes into the second half and Bene would turn from provider to scorer as he headed in a left-wing corner from Rákosi to seal Hungary’s 3-1 success.

This set up a last-eight contest with the Soviet Union but for the third time in four matches Hungary found themselves a goal down early on.

This time, Gellei failed to cleanly gather a low shot from the left wing by Anatoliy Banishevskiy in just the third minute and Igor Chislenko was on hand to tap the ball over the goal line. Attacking by nature, Hungary pushed for an equaliser but instead it was the Soviet Union who doubled their lead, a left-wing free-kick in the 47th minute only helped on its way by Mészöly and Valeriy Porkuyan tapping in from close range with Gellei stranded. Albert set up Bene for an excellent goal just before the hour but a desperate subsequent push for parity was in vain, Yashin superbly saving Ferenc Sipos’ free-kick and Rákosi unluckily missed his kick just three metres from goal. Baróti’s Hungary thus exited the World Cup at the quarter-final stage again and this time they would have rather longer than four years to wait for another chance to shine on the world stage.

The next two editions of the World Cup were notable for Hungary’s absence but 1978 in Argentina saw the famous red, white and green flag flying at FIFA’s premier tournament once again. After a gap of 12 years, Lajos Baróti returned as head coach a short time before the tournament but alas, there was little cheer for Hungarian fans as Tibor Nyilasi and András Törőcsik were dismissed in an opening 3-1 defeat against Argentina, which was then followed by a brace of 3-1 defeats to Italy and France in an admittedly very tough group.

Four years later in Spain yielded a similar result in that Hungary – now led by a famous name of yesteryear in Kálmán Mészöly – exited at the end of the first group stage, but there was one remarkable result in amongst a 4-1 loss to Argentina and a 1-1 draw against Belgium, that of an incredible 10 (ten!)-1 defeat of El Salvador in Elche. Tibor Nyilasi started the rout in the fourth minute and the score was already 5-0 by half-time before László Kiss became the first substitute to score a World Cup hat-trick after entering play in the 56th minute.

The victory, the biggest ever in the 52-year history of the tournament, was the undoubted highlight for Hungary.

Mexico was the host for the 1986 World Cup, which Hungary qualified for at the expense of Austria amongst others, and the omens looked good after a tremendous 3-0 victory in a warm-up match against Brazil in Budapest at Easter time. However, György Mezey’s Hungary, ranked third in the world going into the tournament, failed to deal with the obstacles they encountered, suffering a damaging 6-0 defeat to the Soviet Union and a 3-0 loss to a Michel Platini-inspired France in between a routine 2-0 victory over Canada.

This was the most recent World Cup Hungary have contested. Hopefully it won’t be too long before our men’s or women’s full international squads represent the country on the greatest stage once again.

According to mlsz.hu, the first FIFA World Cup to take place after the Second World War came in Brazil in 1950. The hosts were heavily tipped to win their first world title and their task was made easier due to the absence of a young but already-impressive Hungary team, reputedly due to financial constraints which precluded a long trip to South America (in the end, Brazil lost their final match 2-1 to eventual winners Uruguay).

Thus, it would be 1954 before Ferenc Puskás and his Magical Magyars, by now unbeaten at national-team level for four years, could take the opportunity to prove themselves in FIFA’s biggest tournament. Their warm-up had been seamless, defeating England twice, firstly 6-3 in November 1953 to become the first overseas country to win at Wembley, and then 7-1 in Budapest in May 1954, before Gusztáv Sebes’ side benefited from Poland’s withdrawal to qualify for the finals in Switzerland without a ball needing to be kicked.

Hungary were well-known aa the best team in the world at this time and results continued to indicate this, a 9-0 drubbing of South Korea followed by an 8-3 demolition of an under-strength Germany.

However, the latter match saw captain Puskás injured with what turned out to be a hairline fracture of the leg, which sidelined the superstar for Hungary’s next two matches. Those turned out to be dramatic, energy-sapping 4-2 victories over Brazil in the quarter-final and Uruguay in the semi-final, before a reunion with Germany in the final.

Hungary were odds-on favourites to win despite fielding Puskás who was still hindered by that earlier injury. In wet, muddy conditions, the Magical Magyars got off to their customary fast start, Zoltán Czibor and Puskás slotting home presentable chances to open up a two-goal lead but the scores were level again within 18 minutes of kick-off thanks to retaliatory strikes from Max Morlock and Helmut Rahn. Hungary peppered the German goal but couldn’t regain the lead and were punished with six minutes of the second half remaining, Rahn’s low shot sliding past Grosics and into the far left corner of the goal to put Sepp Herberger’s team 3-2 up in the dying minutes.

There was still time for Puskás to break free and place the ball into the German net from a tight angle, but the English linesman adjudged the Honvéd striker to be offside and thus a prospective last-minute equaliser was disallowed. Germany became world champions for the first time while Hungary’s world-record unbeaten run of 31 came to a distressing end. It was scant consolation that the title of top goalscorer at the 1954 World Cup went to Hungary’s Sándor Kocsis with eleven goals.

Four years later, Hungary’s squad was in a state of flux. Still suffering the after-effects of the 1956 Uprising which resulted in stars such as Puskás, Kocsis and Czibor defecting to the West, the squad was in transition and although ‘Golden Team’ stalwarts Gyula Grosics, József Bozsik, László Budai and Nándor Hidegkuti were still around, they were all the wrong side of 30 years old. Indeed, aside from these four, no one in the squad had more than 29 international appearances to their name.

The unsettled nature of the squad was evident in that Grosics, Bozsik and Hidegkuti all had turns at captaining the team over their four matches, but team spirit was intact and performances against tough opposition showed the players were playing for each other.

The first of these contests came against World Cup debutants Wales and their inspirational player John Charles, who came to the tournament freshfrom winning the Italian league championship with Juventus. Bozsik gave Hungary the perfect start with a fourth-minute opener but Charles equalised on 26 minutes and although the Magyar eleven were always the aggressors, they were unable to seriously test the Welsh keeper for the remainder of the match.

This 1-1 draw was followed by a fixture against hosts and eventual finalists Sweden, who boasted several world stars such as Gunnar Gren, Nils Liedholm and young Kurt Hamrin, the latter stunning Hungary with a goal in each half. Honvéd forward Lajos Tichy had struck the crossbar in the 54th minute but the referee had adjudged the ball not to have crossed the goal line and just one minute later, Hamrin doubled his team’s lead. Sweden captain Liedholm missed a penalty in the 69th minute and Tichy took advantage of that good fortune by halving the deficit twelve minutes from time, but there would be no further addition to the scores.

This and Sweden’s subsequent goalless draw with Wales left Hungary needing to win their final match against Mexico to stay in the tournament. This they did in some style, Tichy scoring twice before goals from Károly Sándor and József Bencsics secured a thumping 4-0 win. Now level on points with Wales, a play-off between the two teams would be required to see who would progress to a quarter-final with eventual winners, the Pelé-inspired Brazil. Tichy, having a tremendous tournament in front of goal, put Hungary ahead in the 33rd minute but creative forward Ivor Allchurch restored parity despite calls for offside and Terry Medwin pounced on a short pass out from goalkeeper Grosics to score the winner in the 76th minute and knock Hungary out of the competition.

By the time of the 1962 edition in Chile, Lajos Baróti’s team had taken on a fresh, new look and would feature some of the greatest players of the 1960s. In had come Kálmán Mészöly – Vasas’ young central defender known as the ‘Blonde Rock’, strongman Ernő ‘Pixi’ Solymosi in central midfield, flying winger Gyula Rákosi and the genius of Flórián Albert upfront.

Hungary’s first opponents England had already suffered at the hands of Albert two years earlier when the striker scored both goals in a 2-0 home win in the Népstadion and this time they were similarly shorn of answers to the threat he posed.

In the 17th minute of a match officiated by Dutchman Leo Horn – the referee of the legendary 6-3 victory at Wembley nine years earlier – Lajos Tichy made the first breakthrough, exchanging passes with Gyula Rákosi and striding forward before thumping a 20-metre drive down the centre of the England goal straight past keeper Ron Springett. 

There were no further goals before half-time and Springett did well to maintain the deadlock with a smart, low save to his left from an Albert effort 12 metres from goal. Just as it seemed Hungary were about to turn the screw, an equaliser appeared on the hour mark, László Sárosi’s handball on the line giving Ron Flowers the chance to slightly fortuitously slide a penalty under Grosic’s sprawling dive to his left. Enter Albert again to win the points for Hungary with 19 minutes remaining, the young Ferencváros favourite running through to bypass a defender in the left channel, round Springett and slot the ball past a lunging Ray Wilson and into the net from a tight angle, just a few metres from the goal line.

That encouraging start was followed by one of Hungary’s greatest attacking displays against another Eastern European team, Bulgaria. Albert was rampant as Lajos Baróti’s side surged into a four-goal lead after just 12 (twelve!) minutes of the match – again held in front of a small, four-figure crowd in Rancagua – courtesy of two Albert strikes, the first after just 50 seconds, and further goals from Tichy and Solymosi. István Ilku deputised admirably for Gyula Grosics in goal while inventive forward János Göröcs’ World Cup debut was surely a factor in a cultured, elegant team performance, the like of which had not been seen on the world stage for several years.

With qualification all but secured, a confirmative goalless draw with Argentina in their last group match was perhaps not unexpected, especially given Albert was rested. One negative point was an 18th-minute muscle tear sustained by Göröcs, which reduced the team to ten men for the rest of the half and the Újpest playmaker to a virtual passenger when he returned to the pitch for the second half. Hungary progressed to a quarter-final tie with Czechoslovakia as group winners but the loss of Göröcs was to prove influential. 

Time and again the attacking unit heaped pressure on a strong Czechoslovakia in an attempt to cancel out Adolf Scherer’s 12th-minute opener but somehow they could never quite convert pressure into goals. Even when Lajos Tichy’s free-kick appeared to cannon down off the crossbar and into the goal, the referee adjudged that the whole ball hadn’t crossed the line and therefore didn’t signal for a goal. Thus, an impressive World Cup for Hungary overall ended in disappointment, the Czechs meanwhile going on to reach the final where they lost 3-1 to holders Brazil.

Hungary’s FIFA World Cup debut came in late May 1934 in the 40,000-capacity Stadio Ascarelli in the suburbs of Naples. Italy was hosting Europe’s first World Cup, the inaugural edition having been won by hosts Uruguay in South America four years earlier. The eight venues of Bologna, Genova, Florence, Rome, Milan, Naples, Turin and Trieste were decided upon on 8th October 1932 and entries to compete were considered until 28th February 1933. Eventually, 32 countries entered (21 for the first time) and after Chile, Peru and Turkey withdrew, 29 were eventually accepted. The draw for the qualifying phase was made on 22th May 1933 at Paris and the 16-team finals draw took place in Rome on 3rd May 1934.

Hungary were pitted against North-African nation Egypt, their surprise conquerers at the Olympic Games in Paris ten years earlier and soon to become the first African team to play in a World Cup, but there was to be no second shock this time.

Pál Teleki gave Ödön Nádas’ team an 11th-minute lead, which Géza Toldi doubled just after the half-hour mark. To their credit, Egypt’s Abdel Rahman Fawzi drew his team level with a brace of goals in the space of five first-half minutes, but Hungary reasserted their authority after the break, forwards Jenő Vincze and Géza Toldi handing their team a 4-2 lead by the 61st minute, an advantage they would not relinquish a second time.

That victory set up a quarter-final tie against the ‘Wunderteam’ of neighbours Austria, one of the world’s powerhouses in 1930s world football, with famous forwards such as Matthias Sindelar and Josef Bican. As if that wasn’t enough, Hungary had several injuries concerns with key players, talisman György Sárosi so handicapped, for example, that he could reputedly pass with his left foot but wasn’t well enough to shoot. Perhaps the momentum was therefore with Austria and they soon took an early lead through Johann Horvath, but it was an even first half thereafter and Hungary even had a worthwhile penalty shout for handball rejected.

The first act of a dramatic second half saw Hungary effectively reduced to ten men when István Avar was incapacitated with a hand injury (no substitutions were allowed in those days and ten minutes later he left the pitch), a setback Austria capitalised upon by doubling their lead through Karl Zischek in the 52nd minute.

More drama was soon to follow though, Tibor Kemény earning a penalty which Sárosi was able to convert, thereby halving the deficit. Hungary’s charge was checked almost immediately when Imre Markos was adjudged to have committed an offence worthy of dismissal, thus reducing the team to nine men for the last 33 minutes of the contest. They still battled gamely though, another Hungarian shout for a penalty and a contentious offside call both falling the way of the Austrians as Nádas’ men unsuccessfully pushed for an equaliser.

Austria therefore progressed to the last four where they exited at the hands of hosts and eventual winners Italy.

Four years later, Hungary proved to be a much more experienced and prolific opponent.

This much was evident in qualifying when they hammered Greece 11-1 at Üllői út, home of the Ferencváros club in Budapest, with Újpest star Gyula Zsengellér notching five goals and Kispest striker scoring a hat-trick in what was remarkably his only international appearance. The team’s freescoring approach was clear again when the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) were dispatched 6-0 in the first round in the Stade Velodrome Municipal in Reims, France, Zsengellér and György Sárosi both scoring twice.

Hungary, now under the leadership of Károly Dienst, were rewarded with a tough quarter-final match against Switzerland, who had only made it this far after seeing off Germany 4-2 in a replay following a 1-1 stalemate. The day before the match, there’d been an earthquake in the host town of Lille but thankfully no one involved in the match was injured. Again, the combination of Zsengellér and Sárosi proved crucial, the latter heading in a shot by the former in the 40th minute and Zsengellér then confirming the victory in the final minute with a shot from inside the penalty area which cannoned off a post and into the Swiss net.

Awaiting Hungary in the semi-final in Paris were Sweden, who had enjoyed the easiest run of all four remaining nations courtesy of a walkover against Austria (unable to compete due to the Anschluss) and an 8-0 demolition of Cuba.

A goal after 35 seconds by Arne Nyberg, after he’d collected a Hungarian goal kick on the halfway line and advanced so far that he could shoot from seven metres, threatened to derail Hungary’s dreams but they reacted so admirably that instead they led 3-1 by half-time. A 21st-minute own goal by Sven Jacobsson after he’d diverted Zsengellér’s shot into his own net restored parity before strikes from Pál Titkos and Zsengellér put Hungary in command of the tie. The dependably destructive striking duo of Sárosi and Zsengellér added second-half goals as Hungary secured a place in their first ever World Cup final.

The opponent standing between Dienst’s team and immortality was none other than reigning champions Italy, who had defeated Norway, hosts France and an emerging Brazil on their way to the final. Controversially, Dienst left key man Géza Toldi out of his lineup, a move which prompted dismay from his players. Nevertheless, Hungary were competitive throughout the showpiece final played in Paris in front of 60,000 spectators.

Gino Colaussi gave Italy a sixth-minute lead but Pál Titkos cancelled that out with a thumping effort from the left side of the penalty area. Silvio Piola re-established his side’s advantage in the 16th minute after intricate Italian interplay in the the opposing penalty area and Colaussi made it 3-1 in the 35th minute with a simple, low finish into the far right corner from ten metres, but Sárosi made no mistake from close range with 20 minutes left to set up a grandstand conclusion to the tournament. Unfortunate for Dienst’s team, Piola’s fabulous first-time drive from 14 metres flew into the very bottom-left corner of the Hungarian net to secure a 4-2 victory for Italy and the retention of their world crown. It would be 16 long years before Hungary would play World Cup football again…