Men's U19 European Championship: the dent still fit, the dent no longer
The first dent was somewhat overcome after the third quarter, but the second great Spanish attack there was already a real fire on the ship on the closing day of the group stage of the U19 European Championship. The team was a bit disorganized in the beginning: the 16 goals conceded indicate that it was not our night. Despite this, we have the second place in the group and with it the quarter-finals - where we will face the winner of the German-Bulgarian match to reach the four.
The usual 3-3 we managed to produce it again in the opening quarter - we ended the match against the Croatians with that much, and then we had the same score against the Montenegrins, even though we ended up leading 4-3 there - which once again foreshadowed a game with a lot of twists and turns.
In any case, the rally started when the Spanish key man Albert Sabadell, who was playing during our first man advantage, was sent off with a red card in the 36th second. In the end, we managed to take the lead from a penalty, Marcell Szécsi delivered it, and Olivér Leinweber shot it in. Enrique Nuno immediately equalized with a nice action goal, but Vince Varga gave us the advantage again with a terrible big shot. Within thirty-five seconds, however, they were in the lead, first they scored a five-pointer, and then, after a possession, they checked out of the net. Then the advantage finally started to work for us, Maxim Cseh's first-rate pass was pushed in from close range by Nagy Zalán.
One deficit was immediately saved at the beginning of the next inning, but the second was not, Marc Rodriguez scored from a single pass. The equalizer came quickly, again the finish was successful from the wall, this time Leinweber played Szécsi perfectly. János Szabó defended a two-man zoning bomb within an attack, but we couldn't score from outside either. There was a goal that Mór Benedek tried to finish off the edge, but the goalkeeper made a great save, and after playing the rebound, Varga hit the crossbar. Zsombor Pörge, on the other hand, aimed first-class, the Spaniards let him get closer from behind with a bad hand, and he scored a big goal in the long top.
Unfortunately, the start of the quarter turned out horribly, Szabó had his hand on Nuno's ball, but somehow the line got stuck. behind, then a somewhat incomprehensible verdict gave the Spaniards a five-pointer, who greeted him warmly and took the lead back (6-5) in the last second.
After a defended deficit, Vince Varga greeted him with another long shot, i.e. to recover the world seemed to be in order, only to have the team shake in three and a half minutes. The Spaniards scored four action goals, two from a through shot, one from the center, one from a corner kick, while we missed another chance and could not play through the Spanish zone in any way. This 0-4 series took a toll on the team, Bence Haverkampf's bomb brought some kind of hope, but then the next chance was also missed, Czech sent the ball to him with a strong grip. Varga at least caught the ball in a deficit, not just by any means, and the quarter ended with a great action goal by Elemér Gidófalvy, i.e. the score was 10-8.
The quarter started with a Spanish advantage, but Gidófalvy brought us back to minus two again with a dazzling catch goal. then Szabó defended brilliantly in the deficit, but we reduced the deficit to one after a dizzying game - Gidófalvy tipped the ball into the hands of Ádám Peőcz, who put it in beautifully from close range (11-10). Unfortunately, Villamayor again successfully kicked the wrong hand from behind - Szabó somehow felt less of these balls.
Unfortunately, then Perrone - Tomas - completed a turn in a manner worthy of his great namesake after winning the ball, again we were at three. Simon Balázs made it even better with a great goal from the center 3:09 before the end, but the Spaniards sold their advantage after a rebound with some malice. And when Villamayor scored from another possession with 2:19 before the end, it all started to look bad, so Róbert Kovács asked for time again, like during the 4-0 rush; another matter is that there was no way back in two minutes from here. Villamayor scored another goal, the six goals conceded in the last quarter did not look good - but at least there will be a day to sort things out. I am happy that we ended up in second place due to the special three-way tie rule - the Spanish won the group, and the result between us and the Croatians decided against each other - so we will play the winner of the Germany-Bulgaria round of 16 for the semi-finals.
Men's U19 European Championship, Burgas
Group A, 3rd Round
Spain-Hungary 16-11 (3-3, 3-2, 4-3, 6-3)
Goals: Varga V., Gidófalvy 2-2, Leinweber, Simon B., Peőcz, Nagy Z., Pörge, Szécsi M.
Final result of the group: 1. Spain 6, 2 . Hungary 6, 3. Croatia 6, 4. Montenegro 0
