Euro 2016 Team Preview: Hungary

The majority of the Hungary squad will know each other quite well as 9 of them all play for Videoton, the reigning Hungarian League champions who were knocked out of the Champions League in the third-round qualifying phase by BATE Borisov. As a nation on the rise in the international scene, it may still be a little too soon for The Magyars to surprise us all at the tournament in France.

How They Qualified: Hungary defeated Norway in the play-offs to enter their first tournament since 1972. After finishing behind Northern Ireland and Romania in Group F they won the first leg of their play-off 1-0 in Oslo before dispatching the Scandinavians with a 2-1 victory in the 2^nd leg.

Tournament History: Semi-finals 1964, 1972.

Coach: Bernd Storck. The German has exceeded expectations with the Hungary set up after landing the post in 2013. An old-school coach from behind the iron curtain he published a book about coaching entitled ‘The Decade of Revival.’ After only being hired on a temporary basis, he and his impressive style were given the job full-time. He is attempting to bring in a new era of football in the country and good luck to him, but how can we get out hands on that book?

Nickname: The Magyars.

Key Man: Balazs Dzsudzsak (above).

The skipper of the side made his name as an orthodox left-winger with PSV where he scored 44 goals over three impressive seasons, furthermore he led the league for assists over that time as well. He got caught up in the Anzhi Makhachkala transfer binge before moving to Dynamo Moscow and then Bursaspor where he is today. The 27-year-old captain has a vivacious attitude to match his physical style and leads by example when out on the pitch.

One To Watch: Laszlo Kleinheisler.

Nicknamed ‘Scholes’ in his homeland the 21-year-old Videoton central midfielder has a cannon of a shot but is not as much of a liability in the tackle as the former Manchester United man.

Fixtures:

June 14, 12 p.m. vs. Austria

June 18, 12 p.m. vs. Iceland

June 22, 12 p.m. vs. Portugal

Squad:

Goalkeepers: Gabor Kiraly (Haladas), Denes Dibusz (Ferencvaros), Peter Gulacsi (Leipzig).

Defenders: Attila Fiola (Puskas Akademia), Barnabas Bese (MTK), Richard Guzmics (Wisla Krakow), Roland Juhasz (Videoton), Adam Lang (Videoton), Tamas Kadar (Lech Poznan), Mihaly Korhut (Debrecen)

Midfielders:  Adam Pinter (Ferencvaros), Akos Elek (Diosgyori), Zoltan Gera (Ferencvaros), Adam Nagy (Ferencvaros), Laszlo Kleinheisler (Werder Bremen), Gergo Lovrencsics (Lech Poznan), Zoltan Stieber (Nurnberg).

Forwards: Balazs Dzsudzsak (Bursaspor), Adam Szalai (Hannover), Krisztian Nemeth (al-Gharafa), Nemanja Nikolic (Legia Warsaw), Tamas Priskin (Slovan Bratislava), Daniel Bode (Ferencvaros).