Switzerland imposes its quality to defeat Hungary

Switzerland, with 45 very complete minutes and another 45 of suffering, leaves Cologne as Germany’s escort in group A of Euro 2024. The team led by Murat Yakin surprised Hungary with a staging of good play and punch that It helped him get the meeting back on track. And despite the Magyars’ efforts to get back into the game, the two goals in the first half weighed on a very important match for the aspirations of both teams in this first group stage. With Germany unleashed, Switzerland, Hungary and Scotland will seek a place in the round of 16, towards which Nati is heading in the right direction after the 1-3 draw this Saturday.

Hungarians and Helvetians had not met in a major championship since 1938, when in the World Cup in Italy, Hungary won 2-0. Since then, the Magyar national team had time to become the most feared in the world with that team that made history in the 1950s with Puskás, Czibor, Kocsis, Szusza, Bozsik and Grosics, and then gradually lose weight until becoming a invisible selection on the European and world scene. In the last decade, good grassroots work has recovered Hungary for the final stages of the Euro Cup and in Germany it has been presented with the aim of continuing to grow and overcome the first round.

But this Saturday he found a Switzerland that has been installed for a long time in a very respectable echelon of continental football. It does not reach the excellence to fight for titles, but it is capable of putting a price on the teams that compete for them. Tell it to France in the round of 16 of the last Euro Cup or what Spain suffered to take the quarterfinals on penalties… In Cologne, the duel between both squads offered some highly coveted points in a group in which Germany emerges as a clear candidate for first place after beating Scotland. Being the alternative to the Germans means not failing in the matches between the other three teams, and it has become clear that Switzerland is going to work hard.

From the first minutes it was seen that Murat Yakim’s group is very clear about its football ideas and they put them into practice with pleasure on the pitch. Ball control, speed on the wing, good midfielders, pressure after loss… but all this in the right doses that allow him to always maintain positional order. Nati has a veteran like Xhaka and a talent like Aebischer whose first appearance after a few minutes of testing between both squads left Duah alone against Gulacsi. The Ludogorets Razgrad striker did not forgive with a goal that left Hungary in doubt.

Marco Rossi’s men had a lot of problems understanding the Swiss game, which hurt them a lot both inside and with the balls to Ndoye, above all. Much more comfortable with the score in their favor, Switzerland built their match in search of expanding the score, something they achieved on the stroke of half-time in a collective action from right to left where Bologna’s connection was fundamental. Ndoye and Aebischer appeared in the collective play that ended with a crossed ball.

Hungary appears

Rossi’s talk at half-time must have been intense and clear because Hungary finally appeared in the Euro Cup. The second half for the Magyars involved first laying the foundations to stop the Swiss momentum, then taking control with a ball that they had barely seen in the first half and finally finding their stars, who had gone completely unnoticed. Szoboszlai, Sallai, Varga… footballers who suddenly recognized each other on the Cologne pitch and as a consequence, Switzerland found themselves defending the result and suffering from Szoboszlai’s crosses to the center of the area. Varga had it in the 63rd minute, a very clear header that went wide, but two minutes later he did not forgive in the same action and Hungary got fully into the game.

Yakin took urgent action. He had to cover the cracks that were evident in Switzerland’s defense and close the bands where Hungary was growing and believing. At least, he managed to rebalance the match and ensure that Switzerland, in more trouble than expected after what happened in the first half, embraced a fundamental victory to look optimistically at its future in this European Championship.