Germany has secured its ticket for the round of 16 of the European Championships after beating Hungary in Stuttgart 2-0.
Germany has secured its ticket for the round of 16 of the European Championships. The Euro 2024 hosts beat Hungary at the sold-out MHP-Arena in Stuttgart 2-0 thanks to goals by Jamal Musiala (22’) and Ilkay Gündogan (67’).
While Germany, however, steamrolled Scotland on matchday 1 (5-1), the Hungarians provided a far more complicated challenge. Packed tight in defense, the Hungarians also put significantly more pressure on midfield engine Toni Kroos.
“It’s always important to confirm the first win,” Kroos said after the game to Das Erste. “It’s actually very rare that we won the first two games in a major tournament. You could see it was more difficult today than on Friday against Scotland.”
That’s certainly correct; Germany has started all recent tournaments with an excellent game, only to falter in the second match. Even in 2014, when Germany won the World Cup, an excellent start against Portugal (4-1) was followed by a 2-2 draw against Ghana.
With that in mind, it wasn’t perhaps surprising that Hungary would be a much bigger challenge. This challenge was made even more difficult by the fact that the Mighty Magyars lost their first game 3-1 to Switzerland, making them desperate to secure something from this match.
In addition, Hungary has also become a bit of a bogey team for the Germans. Going into the match, Hungary was undefeated in the last three games against Die Nationalmannschaft, securing a 2-2 draw at Euro 2020, a 1-1 draw, and a 1-0 win in the UEFA Nations League.
