Sports Mole previews Saturday’s European Championship clash between Hungary and Switzerland, including predictions, team news and possible lineups.
Hungary and Switzerland will kick-start their Euro 2024 campaigns with a Group A encounter at the RheinEnergieStadion in Koln on Saturday afternoon.
The two nations are joined in Group A by Scotland and hosts Germany, who get the tournament underway in Munich on Friday night.
Match preview
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After failing to escape from the group stage at Euro 2020, there is plenty of optimism around Hungary heading into Euro 2024, with Marco Rossi‘s side being tipped by many as one of the dark horses for this summer’s tournament.
Hungary have only lost one of their last 14 internationals since the beginning of 2023 and they went unbeaten through Euro 2024 qualifying during this run, winning five and drawing three games out of eight to top their group for the very first time.
Ranked 26th in the world by FIFA, Hungary are now gearing up for their third consecutive European Championship appearance and have made the trip to Germany after cruising to a 3-0 victory at home to Israel in their final warm-up match last weekend.
The Magyars raced into a three-goal lead inside the opening 22 minutes courtesy of an 11th-minute opener from Roland Sallai and a brace from Barnabas Varga, before seeing out a comfortable win, providing Rossi’s men with a timely boost after suffering a surprise 2-1 friendly loss to the Republic of Ireland just four days earlier.
Hungary will be keen to make a winning start in Group A of Euro 2024, but they come up against a Switzerland outfit who have won six of the last nine meetings between the two nations.
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Saturday’s encounter will be just the second time Hungary and Switzerland have butted heads in a major tournament, with the former winning the previous encounter by a 2-0 scoreline at the 1938 World Cup. The Swiss have since come out on top in their last two international meetings, though, scoring eight goals in the process.
Ranked 19th in the world by FIFA, Switzerland endured a challenging Euro 2024 qualification campaign and battled their way to four wins and five draws from 10 matches to finish second in their group behind Romania.
Their unconvincing campaign subsequently pilled pressure on manager Murat Yakin towards the end of last year, but the 49-year-old has kept his job and is preparing for his first Euros as Swiss boss, with a four-game unbeaten run since the turn of the year helping his cause.
In preparation for Euro 2024, Switzerland put Estonia to the sword 4-0 in their first of two warm-up matches, four days before playing out a 1-1 draw with Austria last weekend, with Christoph Baumgartner‘s early opener cancelled out by Silvan Widmer.
The pressure is on Yakin to steer Switzerland into the knockout rounds and follow in the footsteps of his predecessors, as the Swiss have advanced from the group stage in each of the last five European Championships, and memorably reached the quarter-finals at Euro 2020, a feat they wish to replicate this summer.
Hungary form (all competitions):
Switzerland form (all competitions):
Team News
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Hungary captain Dominik Szoboszlai was forced off in the friendly win over Israel with a minor hamstring issue, but his withdrawal was merely for precautionary reasons and the Liverpool midfielder is ready to start in an advanced role alongside Roland Sallai, who is set to earn his 50th cap.
Rossi is expected to deploy a 3-4-2-1 formation with Adam Lang, Willi Orban and Attila Szalai all lining up in central defence, protecting experienced goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi.
Loic Nego and Bournemouth’s Milos Kerkez are set to operate as wing-backs as Adam Nagy and Andras Schafer link arms in midfield, while Barnabas Varga – who scored 29 goals for Ferencvaros last season – should lead the line.
As for Switzerland, Steven Zuber picked up a knock to his calf in the friendly draw with Austria and was only able to take part in an individual training session on Wednesday, making him a doubt for Saturday’s contest.
However, Monaco duo Breel Embolo and Denis Zakaria have both shaken off injury issues to take part in team training this week and they could be in a position to make the matchday squad against Hungary.
Star names including captain Granit Xhaka, Manuel Akanji and Xherdan Shaqiri are all expected to start, as is Burnley striker Zeki Amdouni, who has scored seven goals in 15 international appearances.
Hungary possible starting lineup:
Gulacsi; Lang, Orban, Szalai; Nego, A. Nagy, Schafer, Kerkez; Szoboszlai, Sallai; Vargas
Switzerland possible starting lineup:
Sommer; Schar, Akanji, Rodriguez; Widmer, Freuler, Xhaka, Ndoye; Shaqiri, Vargas; Amdouni
We say: Hungary 1-1 Switzerland
Both nations know that victory on Saturday would provide them with a huge boost in their quest to qualify for the knockout rounds, but they may opt to take a pragmatic approach to this contest which could result in a closely-fought battle being played out in Koln.
Hungary will fancy their chances of making the net ripple as they have scored in each of their last 11 internationals, but we expect their experienced Swiss counterparts to claim a share of the spoils from their opening group-stage fixture.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.