Hungary v France: What the stats say ahead Euro 2020 clash
This is Hungary and France’s first encounter at the UEFA European Championship. Their two previous meetings at a major tournament both produced French wins: in the group stages of the World Cup in 1978 (3-1) and 1986 (3-0).
France have won each of their last five matches against Hungary (12 goals, 3 against), a run which started with their 3-1 group stage victory at the 1978 World Cup. They had only won three of their previous 17 games against Hungary (D2 L12).
France have beaten Hungary only once in their eight games played on Hungarian soil (D1 L6), that was in March 1990 at Budapest’s Nepstadion (3-1, including a brace from Eric Cantona).
Hungary suffered a 3-0 defeat to Portugal in their first match at EURO 2020, last losing their first two matches at a major tournament at the 1978 World Cup. The only previous time they’ve done so at the European Championships was in 1972, when they lost the semi-final and third-place play-off.
France have won their last five matches in all competitions, doing so without conceding a single goal. They haven’t won six games in a row since June 2016, when the final two games in the run were their opening two matches of EURO 2016.
Going into MD2, Hungary have conceded more goals at the last two European Championships combined than anyone else, letting in 11 goals in five matches, including seven in their last two games alone (0-4 vs Belgium at EURO 2016, 0-3 vs Portugal at EURO 2020).
Only Finland (1) and Turkey (3) had fewer shots on MD1 of EURO 2020 than France (4), while only opponents Hungary (0.18) and Russia (0.26) have posted a lower Expected Goal (xG) total than the French (0.28).
During 2021, only Italy (6) have kept more clean sheets among European nations than France (5), who have kept a clean sheet in their last five matches in all competitions. They last kept six in a row between March and September 2007 under Raymond Domenech.
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Hungary midfielder Ádám Nagy – who won his 49th cap against Portugal on MD1 – is looking to become the 45th player to win 50 caps for the Hungarian national football team, with only striker Ádám Szalai having more caps among the current squad (72).
France striker Karim Benzema – who is 10th on the list of all-time top scorers for the French national team with 27 goals – has never scored a goal at the EUROs in seven previous appearances. Since 1980, his 28 efforts at goal without scoring in the competition are the third-most of any player, behind Spain’s Andrés Iniesta (34) and the Netherlands’ Clarence Seedorf (33).