Hungary v Belgium preview: Marc Wilmots would rather play England
Sunday 26 June 2016 20:43, UK
Belgium manager Marc Wilmots would rather play England or Spain than Hungary in the last-16 of the European Championship.
Minnows Hungary topped Group F after a thrilling 3-3 draw with Portugal, who eventually qualified as a best third-placed team.
They now travel to Toulouse where they face Belgium on Sunday and opposing manager Wilmots believes the underdogs pose as much of a threat as Spain or England.
"We would have nothing to lose against those teams. The press acts like the game against Hungary will be a walkover," Wilmots said.
"Did people not see them play against Portugal? There are no more small teams in international football."
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Hungary are 100-1 outsiders to win the tournament and captain Balazs Dzsudzsak said the whole team are delighted with how their tournament has gone thus far.
"At the moment everything seems like a dream, and we're always asked after the matches what we feel," he told Uefa.com.
"I think our answers are too simple because we are still affected by what happened in Budapest and in Hungary - 15 million people went out of their minds."
Team news
Mousa Dembele and Yannick Carrasco are in contention for Belgium, who will be hoping Everton striker Romelu Lukaku will continue his goal scoring form.
Hungary manager Bernd Storck has two injury concerns ahead of the match. Forward Daniel Bode played only a limited role in training last week and is not expected to play while defender Attila Fiola has been ruled out.
Opta stats
Belgium have won six of their last eight encounters with Hungary (including the last four) while drawing the other two.
None of the 12 encounters between Hungary and Belgium has ended 0-0.
Hungary were the joint-top scorers in the group stages alongside Wales (6 goals each) with 50% of their goals coming from outside the box.
Zoltan Gera became the second oldest goalscorer in the history of the Euros (37 years and 61 days old) behind Ivica Vastic (38 years and 256 days old).
Paul Merson's prediction
What a turnaround for Belgium. They were poor in their first game against Italy and then bang, they have won two games and are flying. They are one of the form teams at the Euros.
Eden Hazard has looked better and they will be too good for Hungary. I like watching Hungary play, they have a go and sometimes you get luck when you have a go, but Belgium should progress.
PAUL'S PREDICTS: 1-2
