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Hungary count on X-factor in Euro 2020 group of death
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Hungary will bank on their X-factor to emerge from the toughest group at Euro 2020 alongside defending champions Portugal and the past two world champions in France and Germany.
Hungary, 37th in the world rankings, are clear underdogs, but as Portugal will remember from the last European Championship, they can be difficult opponents. They played out an exhilarating 3-3 draw with the Portuguese five years ago – taking the lead three times – en route to winning the group with victory over Austria and a draw against Iceland.
That appearance ended a 30-year absence from international tournaments, a dark age for a Hungarian side once considered the world’s best and ranked third before crashing out of the 1986 World Cup.
Lacking big-name players, Hungary rely on solid defence and swift counter-attacks to pick apart opponents, though they have been plagued by inconsistency.
In qualifying for the tournament, they beat World Cup runners-up Croatia and Euro 2016 semi-finalists Wales, only to lose twice to Slovakia and finish fourth in the group. Relegated to the Nations League, Hungary shone once again, beating higher-ranked opponents Serbia (in Belgrade) and Turkey twice.
“It will be a really strange European Championship,”
said football analyst János Kele. “The bigger teams are so World Cup focused that some of them are far from complete. Plus the coronavirus scheduling mess really hurt their planning.”