It was a day of re-writing history for Hungary.
The country’s first win at a European Championship since 1964; its first goal since 1972 and the oldest player to ever appear in the tournament — 40-year-old veteran goalkeeper Gabor Kiraly.
From 1950 until the Hungarian Revolution in 1956, Hungary’s team — dubbed the “Magnificent Magyars” — won 42 games, drew seven and lost just once — in the World Cup final against West Germany.
But Hungary then fell on hard times. It hasn’t been to a World Cup since 1986 and Euro 2016 ends a run of 44 years without a European Championship appearance.
With Austria boasting star names such as Bayern Munich’s David Alaba and the Premier League’s Marko Arnautovic, many didn’t give Hungary a chance prior to kick off.
And that analysis looked well founded as Austria started on the front foot, Alaba crashing a swerving 20-yard strike off the bottom of Kiraly’s post inside 60 seconds.
The Austrians continued to exert their dominance and a wonderful, flowing counter-attack — instigated by Arnautovic’s sumptuous flick — ended with the Stoke forward miscuing his pass into Martin Harnik’s path.
Hungary began to get a foothold in the game at the start of the second half and unexpectedly took the lead with its first real chance.
Without a goal in 41 games for club and country, Adam Szalai played a neat one-two on the edge of the box and calmly slotted the ball past goalkeeper Robert Almer, sending those Hungarian fans behind that goal into raptures.
Less than five minutes later, Austria thought it had equalized but the referee disallowed Arnautovic’s strike and proceeded to send off Aleksandar Dragovic for his second bookable offense.
Despite their numerical disadvantage, Austria began to lay siege to Kiraly’s goal.
However, with Alaba and co. frustrated and unable to make the breakthrough, a slick Hungarian counter finished with Zoltán Stieber deftly chipping the ball over the onrushing Almber to seal a historic win.
