Germany vs Hungary Prediction: Euro 2024 Match Preview
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 to the performance.
Next up for Julian Nagelsmann’s men is Hungary. Ahead of this encounter, Germany is 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 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.
An abysmal 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.
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…
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.
Germany has 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 was victorious 3-2 in the final. They also met in the group stage of Euro 2020, drawing 2-2.
Germany would be confident of picking up maximum points given their overwhelming performance last time out and are backed favourably by bookies to do so with a 71% win option
PREDICTION: Germany vs Hungary: HOME WIN @1.30
Croatia vs Albania: HOME WIN @1.48
Scotland vs Switzerland: X2 & UNDER 4.5 @1.30
Slovenia vs Serbia: X2 & UNDER 4.5 @1.33
Denmark vs England: UNDER 3.5 @1.23
Spain vs Italy: HOME WIN OR DRAW @1.24
