After starting their Euro 2024 campaign in ruthless fashion, the hosts are in Stuttgart for their second match in Group A. Look ahead to the game with our Germany vs Hungary prediction and preview.
Germany vs Hungary Stats: The Key Insights
- Germany are strong favourites with the Opta supercomputer to make it two wins from two, winning this encounter in 71.2% of simulations.
- After beating Scotland 5-1, Germany are looking to win their opening two matches at a European Championship tournament for a fifth time, after doing so in 1972, 1980, 1996, and 2012. They won the competition in three of those previous four instances, failing only in 2012.
- Hungary are without a win in their last seven games at the European Championship (D4 L3) since beating Austria 2-0 in the 2016 group stage. They could lose two matches at a single edition of the tournament for just a second time, after 1972.
Hosts Germany got their Euro 2024 campaign off to a flying start last Friday, putting Scotland to the sword in an impressive 5-1 victory. It was the biggest win by a host nation in their opening match at a European Championship, and Germany’s biggest-ever victory in the competition.
First-half goals from Florian Wirtz, Jamal Musiala and Kai Havertz put Germany into a commanding 3-0 lead at half-time, before Niclas Füllkrug and Emre Can added the gloss on the performance.
That first-half salvo saw Germany become just the third team in European Championship history to score three goals in the first half of a game, along with France vs Belgium in 1984 (3-0 at HT) and France vs Iceland in 2016 (4-0 at HT).
Wirtz got Germany up and running after just 10 minutes, sweeping in a Joshua Kimmich square ball. That goal made him Germany’s youngest (21 years, 42 days) Euros scorer in history. Musiala (21y, 109d), who added the second goal just nine minutes later, became their second-youngest scorer in the competition.
After thoroughly underwhelming campaigns at three successive major men’s international tournaments, it was fitting that Germany’s next generation were the ones to get this one off to a far better start.
That said, Ilkay Gündogan and Toni Kroos – the latter misplacing just one of his 102 passes – were imperious in midfield as Germany easily bested a poor Scotland side.
Next up for Julian Nagelsmann’s men is Hungary. Ahead of this encounter, Germany are looking to win both of their opening two matches at a European Championship tournament for a fifth time, after doing so in 1972, 1980, 1996, and 2012. They won the competition in three of those previous four instances, failing only in 2012.
Marco Rossi’s team were many people’s tips to be one of the tournament’s dark horses this year, but their campaign got off to a disappointing start on Saturday, losing 3-1 to Switzerland.
A really poor first 45 minutes saw them trail 2-0 at the break thanks to goals from Kwadwo Duah and Michel Aebischer.
Barnabás Varga did pull one back, heading in a cross from Dominik Szoboszlai, but that was rendered meaningless when Breel Embolo added a late third for the Swiss.
His assist made it 10 goal involvements for Szoboszlai (6 goals, 4 assists) in his last 15 international games since the start of 2023. The Hungary captain cut a frustrated figure for most of the match though, and you feel that he’ll need to force his way into the game more if Hungary are to have a chance at causing an upset against Germany.
Varga has now scored seven goals in just nine starts for Hungary in all competitions. He could become only the second player to score in both of his first two European Championship appearances for the nation, after Ferenc Bene in 1964.
Hungary’s European Championship form would suggest anything other than a defeat for them here would be a big surprise. They are now without a win in their last seven games at the European Championship (D4 L3) since beating Austria 2-0 in the 2016 group stage. They could lose two matches at a single edition of the tournament for just a second time, after 1972.
But their head-to-head form against Germany suggests this could be closer than might be immediately obvious…
Germany vs Hungary Head-to-Head
Hungary won the last meeting between these two sides, winning a UEFA Nations League game 1-0 in Leipzig back in September 2022. Ádám Szalai scored Hungary’s sole goal that day.
In fact, Germany have won only one of their last six matches played on home soil against Hungary (D2 L3), a 2-0 friendly victory in June 2016.
Overall, this will be the fourth encounter between Germany and Hungary at a major tournament. They met twice at the 1954 FIFA World Cup: Hungary won 8-3 in the group stage before West Germany were victorious 3-2 in the final. They also met in the group stage of Euro 2020, drawing 2-2.
Germany vs Hungary Prediction
The Opta supercomputer is confident Germany will pick up another three points here, assigning them a 71.2% chance of winning. Hungary’s chances of pulling off an upset sit at 12.1%, while the draw occurred in 16.7% of simulations.
At the time of writing, Germany have a 72.9% chance of topping Group A and a 99.4% chance of qualifying for the last 16. After their opening-game defeat, Hungary have a 50.3% chance of making the knockout stage, a lower chance than any other team in Group A, just below Scotland (52.3%).
Germany vs Hungary Squads
Germany
Manuel Neuer, Marc-André ter Stegen, Oliver Baumann, Antonio Rüdiger, Benjamin Henrichs, David Raum, Jonathan Tah, Joshua Kimmich, Maximilian Mittelstädt, Nico Schlotterbeck, Robin Koch, Waldemar Anton, Aleksandar Pavlovic, Chris Führich, Florian Wirtz, Ilkay Gündogan, Jamal Musiala, Leroy Sané, Pascal Groß, Robert Andrich, Toni Kroos, Deniz Undav, Kai Havertz, Maximilian Beier, Niclas Füllkrug, Thomas Müller.
Head coach: Julian Nagelsmann
Hungary
Dénes Dibusz, Péter Gulácsi, Péter Szappanos, Ádám Lang, Attila Fiola, Attila Szalai, Bendegúz Bolla, Botond Balogh, Endre Botka, Loïc Négo, Márton Dárdai, Milos Kerkez, Willi Orbán, Zsolt Nagy, Ádám Nagy, András Schäfer, Callum Styles, Dániel Gazdag, Dominik Szoboszlai, Krisztofer Horváth, László Kleinheisler, Mihály Kata, Roland Sallai, Barnabás Varga, Kevin Csoboth, Martin Ádám.
Head coach: Marco Rossi
Germany vs Hungary Predicted Lineups
Germany vs Hungary Key Players
Opta Points is a quantitative player metric for football that scores a player’s contribution at the game and season levels. Based on each side’s opening fixtures, here are their top-performing players at Euro 2024 so far:
Germany:
Jamal Musiala (28.6)
Joshua Kimmich (25.8)
Toni Kroos (23.0)
Hungary:
Barnabás Varga (19.0)
Willi Orbán (18.4)
Dominik Szoboszlai (15.8)
With the launch of Opta Max for Euro 2024, you can predict the Player of the Match in four featured games each round and earn points for your predictions. The points can then earn you big cash prizes. Sign up to play for free.
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