It was a battle of ‘dark horses’ in the second game at Euro 2024. Check out the best facts, stats and live Opta data with our Hungary vs Switzerland stats page.

It might not have been the most glamorous game of Saturday’s Euro 2024 schedule on paper, but Switzerland’s 3-1 victory over Hungary delivered on its promise of being an interesting contest.

Two in-form teams over the last 18 months, Hungary had found themselves being tipped as the proverbial ‘dark horses’ in Germany, but it was Switzerland boss Murat Yakın who made all the headlines before kick-off with his selection of Kwadwo Duah up front, with Breel Embolo and Noah Okafor only on the bench.

As it turned out, Embolo would still have a impact on the victory, but it was Duah who set his team on their way to three points in Cologne.

The 27-year-old only won his first cap for Switzerland 11 days prior in a friendly against Estonia, but he took to the big stage like a duck to water as he ran on to Michel Aebischer’s through ball before slotting calmly past Péter Gulácsi with less than 12 minutes on the clock. It took a VAR intervention to overturn the original offside call, but that didn’t dampen the eventual Swiss celebrations.

It was a nice move from Switzerland, who had enjoyed the better of the opening exchanges even before the goal. There were 22 passes in the build-up to Duah’s opener, the third-longest passing sequence leading to a goal at a Euros on record (since 1980).

Falling behind didn’t bode well for Hungary, who had never won a game at a Euros after conceding first, losing five of their previous six such matches (D1).

Just before half-time, that stat didn’t look like getting any better as Aebischer went from provider to goalscorer as he bent a superb strike into the far corner from the edge of the box. Like Duah, the Bologna midfielder had opened his international account, and in some style.

Aebischer became the first Swiss player to score and assist in a game of a major tournament since Tranquillo Barnetta at the 2006 World Cup against Togo, which also took place in Germany.

Duah and Aebischer also became only the third and fourth players to score on their European Championship debut for Switzerland, after Kubilay Turkyilmaz vs England in 1996 and Fabian Schär vs Albania in 2016.

It was an insipid 45 minutes from Hungary, who conceded twice in the first half of a major tournament game for the first time since the 1986 World Cup against USSR (3 goals), and only the second time at the Euros after allowing two against Belgium in 1972.

Manager Marco Rossi made a change at the break, bringing Bendegúz Bolla on for Ádám Lang, but it was Switzerland who again started brighter in the second half.

Yakin’s men had only conceded once in their previous four games (all friendlies), and you could see why as their organisation out of possession had flummoxed Hungary for an hour.

Captain Dominik Szoboszlai was involved in more goals than any other Hungary player in Euro 2024 qualifying (4 goals, 3 assists), while he also topped their charts for chances created (23), shots attempted (28), shots on target (13), successful passes in the opposition half (256), expected goals (3.1) and expected assists (2).

The Liverpool man was cutting a frustrated figure here, though, as little was coming off for him or his side. Hungary did have a glorious chance to halve the deficit in the 63rd minute when Roland Sallai crossed for Barnabás Varga but he could only direct his header wide.

That seemed to kick Rossi’s side into gear, and just a couple of minutes later they found a goal, with Szoboszlai floating a perfect cross to the back post, and Varga couldn’t miss with another header after getting beyond Aebischer. That made it 10 goal involvements for Szoboszlai (6 goals, 4 assists) in his last 15 international games since the start of 2023.

It was suddenly more of a contest. Switzerland looked less sure out of possession, while Hungary had stopped misplacing as many passes as they had earlier in the game.

The, shall we say, ‘industrial figure’ of Martin Ádám came on with 11 minutes to go and immediately set about being a nuisance for the Swiss, but the game was done in stoppage time when Embolo, on as a sub, took advantage of a mistake from Willi Orbán, who sent his header from a long Yann Sommer ball straight into the path of the Swiss striker, and he lobbed Gulácsi to make it 3-1 and give Switzerland an ideal start to their Euro 2024 campaign.

It’s just the second time that Switzerland have won the opening match of a European Championship final campaign, last doing so in 2016 (1-0 vs Albania). But Swiss fans shouldn’t get too excited, they followed that with three successive draws as they were eventually knocked out on penalties by Poland in the last 16.

For Hungary (17%), only Romania (6%) and Poland (14%) have a lower win percentage amongst nations who have played 5 or more games at the finals.

Our Opta match centre delivers you all the Hungary vs Switzerland stats from their Euro 2024 Group A clash at Cologne Stadium.

The match centre below includes team and player stats, expected goals data, passing networks, an Opta chalkboard and more. It gives you everything you need to do your own post-match analysis.

Underneath the match centre you can find the official Opta stats on the game as well. 

Hungary vs Switzerland: Post-Match Facts

  • Switzerland picked up only their fourth win in 19 European Championship matches (D8 L7), winning their opening match of an edition of the finals for only a second time, after 2016 (1-0 v Albania).
  • Hungary have only won two of their 12 matches at the European Championships (D4 L6), a win rate of 17%. Among nations with 5+ games at the finals, only Romania (6%) and Poland (14%) have a lower win percentage.
  • There were 22 passes in the build up to Switzerland’s opener scored by Duah, the third-longest passing sequence leading to a goal at the Euros on record (since 1980).
  • Switzerland have only lost one of their last 15 matches in all competitions (W7 D7), a 1-0 defeat to Romania in qualifying for this tournament in November 2023.
  • Aebischer became the first player ever to both score and assist a goal in the same match at the Euros for Switzerland.
  • Varga was the fifth player to score on his European Championship debut for Hungary, after Ferenc Bene (1964), Dezso Novák (1964), Ádám Szalai (2016), and Zoltán Stieber (2016). Varga has scored seven goals in just nine starts for Hungary in all competitions.
  • Ricardo Rodríguez played his 22nd game at a major international tournament for Switzerland (Euros/World Cup), the outright most of any player for the nation.

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