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
© Reuters
© Reuters
Hungary form (all competitions):
Switzerland form (all competitions):
Team News
© Reuters
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.