Good afternoon and welcome to our live coverage of the second match of Euro 2024, as Hungary take on Switzerland in Cologne.
Yesterday evening saw the 17th edition of this tournament commence with host nation Germany’s impressive 5-1 thrashing of Scotland.
Now it is the turn of Group A’s two other teams, Hungary and Switzerland to get their campaigns underway, and both teams enter this tournament on opposite ends of the spectrum form-wise.
Hungary, ranked 26th in the world, qualified for Euro 2024 in excellent fashion, topping their group ahead of Serbia without losing a single game, and were unbeaten throughout the calendar year of 2023.
This will be their third successive European Championship campaign, after failing to qualify for any major tournaments between 1986 and 2016.
And Hungary have proved more than capable of landing heavy blows against opponents in their recent showings, reaching the last 16 at Euro 2016, and taking a point from both France and Germany at Euro 2020, albeit finishing bottom of the ‘Group of Death’.
And with Scotland suffering a heavy defeat yesterday, Hungary, captained by fit-again Liverpool midfielder Dominic Szoboszlai may have received extra motivation to gain a victory today that could prove crucial to advancing to the knockout stages once again.
Meanwhile, Switzerland have not entered this tournament in the best of spirits, having won only one of their final seven qualifying matches, which earned them second place in their group, two points ahead of Israel.
This treacherous run of form increased the scrutiny on manager Murat Yakin, but Swiss FA president Dominique Blanc’s vote of confidence ensured Switzerland were not to experience any sudden changes in their dugout before proceedings commenced in Germany this summer.
Nevertheless, Switzerland’s impressive record of reaching the knockout stages of the past five major international tournaments has only been matched by France. Ironically, it was the then world champions who succumbed to the Swiss at the last Euros, as Switzerland pulled off an almighty shock, coming back from 3-1 down in normal time to progress to the quarter finals on penalties in a thrilling last-16 tie.
And a victory this afternoon against Hungary will go a long way to securing passage to the knockout stages once again.
Team news to follow shortly.