Hungary's Nagy sends holders home

Hungary left Spain's hopes of defending the UEFA European Under-19 Championship hanging by a thread as Olivér Nagy's second-half strike inflicted a second successive Group A defeat on the holders in Pribram.

Second win
In contrast to Spain's opening defeat against Germany, Tibor Sisa's Hungary side had opened their first U19 finals campaign with victory against Bulgaria and put in another hard-working and disciplined performance against the Iberian side. Clear chances were hard to come by at either end, until the 71st minute when Nagy took advantage of a fumble from goalkeeper David de Gea to scramble in what proved to be the only goal. Hungary are therefore on the verge of reaching the last four for the first time, while Germany must lose to Bulgaria in tonight's other fixture for Spain to have any hope of staying in the competition.

Aarón impresses
Spain coach Ginés Meléndez had warned his players they needed to show more attacking invention and the holders made a promising start with Aarón Ñíguez a lively presence early on, embarking on three promising runs inside the first ten minutes and nearly getting on the end of a through-ball from Fran Mérida. Aarón then played in Emilio Nsue but, from a tight angle the forward pulled his attempt across the face of goal and also shot too high when well placed later in the half, while Iván Bolado headed wide from a corner.

Komán goes close
The Iberian side did not have everything their own way as Hungary's tactic of getting the ball forward quickly from the back led to a series of promising situations, Vlagyimir Komán shooting wide from the edge of the area as early as the sixth minute. Midway through the half the Hungary captain nearly caught out De Gea with a clever free-kick that the goalkeeper blocked at his near post, and András Gosztonyi and Márk Nikházi both narrowly missed the target.

Nagy opportunism
Hungary continued to threaten as the second period unfolded, De Gea punching away a fierce Gosztonyi drive while Meléndez introduced Jordi Alba and Daniel Aquino in a bid to pep up his attack. Hungary stilll looked the more likely scorers, however, and Zsolt Korcsmár just failed to prod in after De Gea had dropped a corner. The goalkeeper was not so fortunate 19 minutes from time as he failed to hold another cross and this time Nagy turned the ball over the line to spark wild Hungarian celebrations, although it took excellent saves from Péter Gulácsi to deny Daniel Parejo and Nsue twice in a thrilling finale.