The anticipation for this game in Hungary media is unprecedented in my lifetime. Hungary matches up pretty well to Scandinavian teams. We eliminated Norway in the last qualification to make the Euro. We beat Finland and Faroe Islands twice each in our qualifying group. And we tied Denmark in a friendly last year. Iceland of course is a different team, but this is as good as an opportunity as Hungary will ever have to qualify out of a group. One point is OK but 3 points and Hungary will explode with joy that football fans of my age can not remember in our lifetimes.
A draw probably will be enough, have to feel 4 points will be enough to advance as a top third placed team. Iceland will certainly be no pushovers and I am sure they will be looking at this game as a must-win to advance. I feel like Iceland will probably be the favourites in this one, but Hungary have proven me wrong before against Austria.
The difference between us and Austria was that Austria was too confident and comfortable. Their team is full of players who had successful seasons. Alaba won Bundesliga, Sabitzer won Bundesliga II, Fuchs won Premier League, Dragovic won Ukrainian league and Janko won Swiss league. Arnautovic had a big season. Baumgartlinger just earned a big money move to Leverkusen ... On the other hand almost all Hungarian players had poor club seasons and were just much hungrier at the opportunity to play. Szalai and Stieber in particular were completely out of favor at club level, and it's no surprise that they were the most determined to make a difference. Unfortunately you only get one opportunity in a tournament to surprise the competition. Iceland will not make the same mistake that Austria made and get too comfortable. The key now is for Hungary to not let the Austria result go to their heads and maintain the focus.
Difficult to call this as I know very little of either teams. I guess Hungary will be very pleased with a draw and probable qualification. Iceland after a great point against Portugal will maybe have more to think about as a draw means 2 from 2 with a game against Austria for the final game. As neither side are known for their attacking prowess I would bet on a draw just above a 1-0 for either side.
Not sure why Hungary dropped Szalai after he scored a goal. Keep the striker in there to build momentum.
This was more like the Hungary I remember from qualifying. Not enough quality to create many chances, but they try to stay organized and stay in the game. We have an attack by committee ... every game it's a different player that contributes. Today it was Nagy with a defense splitting pass and Nikolics off the bench forcing the own goal. The most impressive is Hungary's coach Bernd Storck who is getting the maximum possible out of this group of players. The fact that we've had 2 games in a row where the players off the bench make an impact also shows he has good in game management skills.
Yeah, this kid came out of nowhere. It's not like he was a rising star a year ago that everyone was anticipating. He actually wasn't even playing club football because of a dispute when Storck brought him into the team. Really from his very first appearance in national team he was a revelation and Werder Bremen quickly pounced on him in the winter transfer window.