Germany vs Hungary live updates: Euro 2024 match team news ...
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The introduction to English football could not have gone better for Dominik Szoboszlai after signing for Liverpool last summer. Within weeks of making his Premier League debut, he was earning comparisons to club legend Steven Gerrard.
The energy, athleticism, ball carrying, ball striking and all-round technical quality were attributes to marvel at.
Hungary need Szoboszlai to be the best version of himself for the upcoming tournament. He is their star man. His quality and leadership qualities earned him the captaincy in 2022, aged 21, and Hungary have only lost one of the following 16 games since.
Szoboszlai has dealt with pressure and expectation for most of his life. From an early age, he was pinpointed as the country’s next big hope.
His secret weapon is his small feet. Szoboszlai’s feet are a size seven, helped by the midfielder wearing boots that were slightly too small for him. In Hungary, members of the older generation have a theory that if you are “blessed” with small feet, there’s a far greater chance of succeeding as a footballer, dating back to the country’s greatest player, Ferenc Puskas.
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The Radar – The Athletic’s Euro 2024 scouting guide
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The lesser-spotted 4-3-2-1 formation — also known as the ‘Christmas tree’, for obvious reasons — might well only be used by Germany at the Euros this summer. Typically, it limits a team’s width. But it suits Germany down to the ground, with inverted and ambitious full-backs, a technically proficient group of central midfielders and star attackers Jamal Musiala and Florian Wirtz used centrally rather than shunted out to the wing.
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If you asked Germans (or anyone) a year ago who their starting left-back at Euro 2024 would be, you’d have likely heard: David Raum, Robin Gosens… and possibly even ‘Kai Havertz’. But certainly not Maximilian Mittelstadt.
After he was relegated with Hertha Berlin last summer, Stuttgart triggered his £429,000 (€500,000; $541,000) release clause. His subsequent performances were beyond what anyone could have expected and now Nagelsmann calls him one of the best four left-backs in the world. Some stage to prove it.
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Maximilian Mittelstadt: From disregarded to a shoo-in for Germany at the Euros
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Germany’s striking options are a broad church. Currently the incumbent is the versatile, multi-functional Kai Havertz, after that left wing-back experiment was thankfully binned. Also vying for the No 9 role is pure finisher Deniz Undav, who this season helped fire Stuttgart to second with 18 goals and nine assists. And then there is old-school powerhouse Niclas Fullkrug. Plus the intriguingly skilled 21-year-old Maxi Beier has hallmarks of Raumdeuter (space investigator) Thomas Muller. He is the coming man.
All that means Germany can, and should, attack in plenty of different ways depending on the game situation.
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Germany may not have lived up to expectations at recent tournaments. But they won the Euros as West Germany in 1972, again eight years later, and again in 1996. And they also lifted no fewer than four World Cups — in 1954, 1974, 1990 and 2014.
As Gary Lineker once said: ‘Football is a simple game. Twenty-two men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans always win’.
It just seems as though, at the pressure-cooker moments in tournaments, Germany always finds a way. That institutional memory of Turniermannschaft (tournament team) could be crucial in the rarefied air of knockout matches. Just ask Gareth Southgate…
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Goalkeepers: Denes Dibusz (Ferencvaros), Peter Gulacsi (RB Leipzig), Peter Szappanos (Paksi FC).
Defenders: Balogh Botond (Parma), Endre Botka (Ferencvaros), Marton Dardai (Hertha Berlin), Attila Fiola (Fehervar FC), Adam Lang (Omonia Nicosia), Willi Orban (RB Leipzig), Attila Szalai (Freiburg).
Midfielders: Bendeguz Bolla (Servette FC), Mihaly Kata (MTK), Milos Kerkez (Bournemouth), Laszlo Kleinheisler (Hajduk Split), Adam Nagy (Spezia), Zsolt Nagy (Puskas Academy FC), Loic Nego (Le Havre), Andras Schafer (Union Berlin), Callum Styles (Sunderland), Dominik Szoboszlai (Liverpool).
Forwards: Adam Martin (Ulsan Hyundai), Kevin Csoboth (Ujpest FC), Daniel Gazdag (Philadelphia Union), Krisztofer Horvath (Kecskeméti TE), Roland Sallai (SC Freiburg), Barnabas Varga (Ferencvaros).
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Goalkeepers: Oliver Baumann (Hoffenheim), Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich), Marc-Andre ter Stegen (Barcelona)
Defenders: Waldemar Anton (Stuttgart), Benjamin Henrichs (RB Leipzig), Joshua Kimmich (Bayern Munich), Robin Koch (Eintracht Frankfurt), Maximilian Mittelstadt (Stuttgart), David Raum (RB Leipzig), Antonio Rudiger (Real Madrid), Nico Schlotterbeck (Borussia Dortmund), Jonathan Tah (Bayer Leverkusen)
Midfielders: Robert Andrich (Bayer Leverkusen), Chris Fuhrich (Stuttgart), Pascal Gross (Brighton), Ilkay Gundogan (Barcelona), Toni Kroos (Real Madrid), Jamal Musiala (Bayern Munich), Emre Can (Borussia Dortmund), Leroy Sane (Bayern Munich), Florian Wirtz (Bayer Leverkusen)
Forwards: Maximilian Beier (Hoffenheim), Niclas Fullkrug (Borussia Dortmund), Kai Havertz (Arsenal), Thomas Muller (Bayern Munich), Deniz Undav (Stuttgart, on loan from Brighton)
The game is being shown live on BBC One in the United Kingdom. In the United States you can catch it on FS1.
Germany’s match against Hungary is the second Euro 2024 game today.
That means it gets underway at 6pm local time, which is 5pm BST, midday EDT and 9am PDT.
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Welcome to our live coverage of Germany vs Hungary at the 2024 European Championship today.
Germany began their campaign in absolutely sublime fashion on Friday, dismantling Scotland in front of a boisterous home crowd to record an eye-catching 5-1 victory. Of all the heavyweight nations at Euro 2024 this summer, they looked by far the most formidable in their opening match.
Big things were also expected of Hungary, who in 2022 beat Germany and twice defeated England — thrashing them 4-0 in their own backyard at Wembley Stadium. But Hungary were disappointing in their opening match of the tournament, falling to a 3-1 defeat by Switzerland. If they are to have any chance of progressing to the knockouts they likely need to avoid defeat today.
