The Ultimate Dark Horses At Euro 2024 

It took me 15 minutes to realise this video was only about Hungary. I thought wow, this is the longest entry ever.

1:52 as a hungarian I can safely say that the 2016-18 era was NOT our all time low😂 Early 2000s and late 90s were waaay more dreadful. 2010s had its moments

The more people say Hungary will surprise everyone, the more likely it is that they'll disappoint everyone.

damn, I've been watching hitc seven for 7 years straight. This is part of my life now

I'm betting on a final with Austria-Hungary. The only question is who they're going to face.

So according to odds, a country that didn’t lose in over 18 months is less likely to win than Turkey who got battered 6-0 by Austria of all teams

In the Euros 2020 Hungary almost won their group which had Germany, France and Portugal in it. Almost, because of an 84th minute Leon Goretzka equalizer in their last group stage match. It's no surprise that the sentiment in Hungary is that the group stage is more than survivable this time, but if history taught us anything, it's that the more we hope, the more disappointed we get at the end.

Well this aged very poorly

It is a really good summary abut the Hungarian National teams current situation. There is one thing I feel a bit left-out. Before Rossi took over the national team, two other managers did the actual groundwork. The story of the first one, Pal Dardai, is almost like a fairy tale. A disastrous 8:1 defeat against the Netherlands was the lowest point in 2013. After a few more years of experimenting Dardai was asked to took over the national team as interim manager. He was managing Herta Bsc and was allowed to "take the job for the summer". He came in as a mid-table Bundesliga manager and turned into a national hero in 4 games. There were videos circling on youtube about of his training. He had to explain the "basics of the game" to grown a** national players like they were 8 years old kids. He took the team to the euro qualification playoffs. Than Bernd Strock did "wonders" with them on the Euro 2016 using the same "German style" of discipline and mentality. Rossi is inherited their groundwork and elevated it to a completely different level. During Dardai's time it turned out that the issues with the Hungarian football system is worse than people thought, so most players agents (or parents) took they youth to clubs in Germany and Austria. This is when the likes of Szoboszlai ended up "not getting into" the Hungarian system. Those players who grow up in the last 8 years in the Bundesliga and in England are the core of the national team today. EDIT: I factually corrected one sentence....

I'd agree that club-wise Adam Szalai was not the most prolific goalscorer, but a lot like Giroud's role for France, his incredible ability to hold the ball upfront and push the game forward, allowing wingers and attacking mids to make runs as he opened spaces for them, was what made them so dangerous up front and Adam so important to Hungary's game. Don't forget their insane 3-3 performance against Portugal at the Euros! Definitely a team to be aware of and not under-estimate!

Yeah fam nah I don't think they can be dark horses if they're out in the groupstage

The main reason why Hungarian football was special in the first half of the last century because the game was popular not just among the working class but among the intellectual upper class too and because of this there was a strong intellectual background behind the game, which allowed a number of revolutionary theories to emerge. The coffee houses of Vienna and Budapest provided an excellent setting for theoretical discussions on the game and for the development of the "Danubian School". In the decades to come, the Holocaust and then the communist regime completely erased this intellectual background. The Holocaust wiped out many great minds and later the communist regime created a top-down, internalised system in which there was no room for debate, no room for initiatives, only the central will of the party mattered. The intellectual background of the coffee houses has slowly faded into oblivion and the sad truth is that in the '50s, which we refer as a "golden age", we only managed the remnants of what was left from the decades before. The leading professionals of that era, such as Gusztáv Sebes, Jenő Kalmár, Géza Kalocsay, Gyula Mándi, Márton Bukovi and Lajos Baróti, had all picked up their football socialisation in that particular "coffe house" era. However, no one came to take their place later, because the bridges they had crossed had been burnt... From this point onwards, the top-driven Hungarian football was not influenced by any external pressure for renewal and innovation, and the lack of this led to Hungarian football falling decades behind. Another important factor in this decline was the Kádár leadership's determination to turn Hungarian football into semi-amateurish and mediocre. They feared of another revolution and they feared the power of football to move the masses. They didn't let players to go abroad. In this nihilistic environment where there are no performance expectations, many people have built themselves comfortable positions and these people still poison Hungarian football to this day. Our youth education is terrible. Our coach education is terrible. Our saviours in recent times have been those who left this toxic environment at a young age and they brought back the knowledge and put to use at home. Our coach Marco Rossi who was a coach in the Italian 3rd division was able to do a better job than any 1st division hungarian coach in the last 30 years.

As soon as enough people call a team a 'dark horse' before the tournament, it becomes guarenteed that that team fails to do anything impressive.

Now this has aged well. 🇨🇭🇨🇭🇨🇭

I got sold on the Hungary hype by this video, and after watching the first match, I feel scammed. More innocent than Burnley and they can't connect a direct attack.

Video ageing like a fine wine so far 😭😂

Aged like milk this one.

Hungary 2024 is the new Turkey 2021

Videos for you to consider - what on earth is going on at inverness Caledonian thistle From third place and winning Scottish cup to Scottish league one You Haven’t had a Scottish team in this series so you might want to. - Clapton CFC A fan owned team and their story You do like a non league video at times for the viewers - the rise of bashundhara kings How they won last six Bangladesh premier League now - last suggestion would be your q and a video 😊

I once made all the leagues in the world playable on Football Manager 07 and started unemployed, with the only rule being that I would accept the first job offer. I was offered the job of then second division Hungarian team Celldomolk. Over the next 18 seasons, I eventually took them to champions league glory. Ever since then I have had a soft spot for Hungarian football.

you jinxed this one bro

My grandad was at the match of the century. He said Puskas was the best footballer he’d ever seen

Switzerland : “you sure about that ?”. The swiss are dominating the first half against them

Back in 2004 I did a works sweepstake for the Euros A mate of mine who didn't know anything about football drew Greece He asked me " are they any good ?" I said "put it this way if they win I'll pay you with my own money " Guess what happened

If Greece can win the 2004 Euros and Leicester win the EPL in 2016 its certainly not beyond the realms of possibility for Hungary to win this competition

Hungary is one of my favourite nations and the national team are one of my favourites ever and I hope to see them doing well like in the previous venture,good friends!!!LONG LIVE HUNGARY AND HUNGARIAN FOOTBALL!!!🇭🇺

Alfie with all due respect, you know much more about football than me, but you have to stop predicting dark horse teams. First you went for Turkey in 2020, now it's Hungary. (Not to gloat too soon, but I had Switzerland and Germany going through and I actually predicted 3-1 to Switzerland on the UEFA site) I still don't know what people saw in that Turkey team, by the way. Them finishing rock bottom was one of the few things I got confidently right about that tournament. The hype behind them was inexplicable to me.

19:53 almost 20 minutes in and still nothing about why they're dark horses Classic Alfie 😂

Here's the thing: I'm from Serbia and during the qualifiers Hungary was in our group as well: we lost to them 2:1 both times, their defence is SOLID, attack not so much yet they still manage to score at least once every game. Their euro group is fairly doable, they might even top it. They're neighbours, so imma be (slightly) rooting for them, even tho I'm still salty about how qualifiers went against them. As per us: we're doomed, England is ravaging us in the first game and we'll lose that little bit of confidence we have built in the last few months going into the other two games against Denmark and Slovenia. I hope we'll at least be able to advance as best third ranked team otherwise we suffer.

You didn't mention that for Switzerland their flag is a big plus. But thanks for drawing my attention to the Hungary v Switzerland match and its key influence on the group. I'll make sure I er.. 'clock', that one.

Just drawn Hungay in our office sweeps.... this makes me a little happier :)

While I am happy that our neighbours are doing pretty well lately in football, I really can't see them doing something great at this Euro (great=at least reaching the semifinal). Maybe I'm wrong, we'll see. Greetings to fellow Hungarians from Croatia!

Well done, Alfie. As a Hungarian, I can say this summary was very accurate. Having born in ‘82, the level of football has been absolutely dreadful ever since I remember up until the group stages of the 2016 Euros. Keep up the good work!

Might be the worst prediction ever made on this channel, honestly I would just delete the video and pretend like it never happened.

Újpest was recently bought by MOL which is partly owned by the state, so there's no clubs in the first division who is not linked to Orban, or the state to some degree. Otherwise great video!

Thank you ,from Hungary!

As a Hungarian, most of your pronunciation is very good, and I appreciate the effort you put into it, great video as always Alfie

We need to talk about HITC sevens prediction

I wanna see more underdog teams pulling off shock victories over bigger teams this tournament. It's always a joy to see those fantastic performances in big international tournaments

Another great vid Alf, but I still think you should do a video on the dark horses of league one next season, Stockport County 🔵⚪️

Best German players in the premier league of all time. (Day 642) I will not give up until the video is made or Alfie himself tells me to stop. Everyone else telling me that will be ignored. If you don't believe my number, just go back to the previous videos. I'm at the bottom most of the time, but I'm there.

Amazingly insightful video as always, Alfie and i'm glad that you shed some light as to why some of us Hungarian football fans find ourselves in a kind of a schizo pilled situation. Of course we want our national team to perform, but every good performance is just a piece of propaganda for that pig Viktor and his entourage. Just a small piece of correction: Újpest, of whom you said that they are the last team in the top flight not to be owned by someone in the circles of the Fidesz-oligarchy, are currently being bought by the Hungarian Oil and Gas Public Limited Company or MOL, which is one of the most important bases of Fidesz and NER power (NER: "System of National Cooperation", a bit like the PIF in Saudi Arabia, goes without saying, the very framework of the fiscal power of Fidesz). And the most absurd thing for me is that Újpest, lifelong rivals of Ferencváros, the latter of which being a cesspit of Fidesz-supporters, have long taunted Ferencváros with being the lapdogs of Fidesz ("NERencváros") are close to also becoming lapdogs, but the Újpest ultras basically welcome the deal as marking a new heyday age for the club, and they have zero reflection on the level of hypocrisy of the situation. Oh and don't even get me started on the russian connections of both MOL and the NER, what with Gazprom fit to become the main sponsors of Ferencváros. Just goes to show how politically tone-deaf the majority of hungarian club supporters are (beside the ones that are very open with their right, or far-right affiliations and fascist ideologies). On the other hand, goes to show why your videos are very relevant, Alfie: the reflection on the interconnectedness of football and politics is extremely important. Been following you for some years now, keep up the good work!

Well done Alfie, great video as always 👏 Personally love the way you interweave the history of Hungarian football and its ruling, uh.... 'characters' 😂 Quality!

As a half-Hungarian, the past few years have been unbelievable with the transformation of the team from pre-2016 and there have been some real great results on the way. Not sure about this year though, feels like the good performances have to come to an end and it may be this Euros

You should add that Orban Vili, and Kerkez Milos , Dardai Marton and Pal all have Hungarian ancestry...

Fuck it Alfie, you jinxed them.

Alfie, will you be doing any Copa America content? I know euros are a bigger higher quality tournament but with the US hosting and Concacaf participating its quite interesting this year and is certainly a major tournament.

Thank you so much, I couldn’t ask for a more beautiful combination of football and politics

hungary already convinced me that they will be my biggest disappointments. horrible against switzerland except for a couple of minutes. szoboszlai looks like he’s a terrible leader, shitting himself almost every time he had the ball

this didn’t age well

It's a bit unfair to put Kerkez and Dárdai in the same category as Orban and Nego. Kerkez was born in Vojvodina, a region in Serbia with a huge Hungarian diaspora, while Dárdai has Hungarian parents. Orban has one Hungarian parent, while Nego acquired Hungarian citizenship via naturalization.

Great video will be watching the Hungarians 🇭🇺 with keen interest. I also have a video suggestion for the future based on the Club World Cup on the format participants and progress in preparation. Thank you.

Nice vid! Bozo wasnt the owner when Rossi was with Honvéd, but other than that, pretty good research!! Well done!

Next video after England v Iceland friendly - "We Need To Talk About The English Media" regarding the treatment of Saka and Mainoo

Can you PLEASE do a preview of both the EUROS and COPA AMERICA, that’d be excellent if you haven’t already of course.

Should I get offended by now as a Swiss? 😅 That's the 3rd Tournament in a row when a dark horse got hyped up in a group with Switzerland. Turkey in 2021 and Serbia in 2022 ended up eliminated.

I'm glad you made this video. I've predicted Hungary to finish top of Group A of Euro 2024 ahead of Germany (who they've beaten in Germany not too long ago).

Hey Alfie, can you do a “the 7 most likely countries to win the euros”?

I feel like Hungary are going to be this Euros's Turkey

You should do a video on politics and corruption in Serbian football

What if Steven Gerrard signed for Chelsea in 05? Mourinho cracks how to play him with Gerrard and does Svens work for him. Does that mean the Golden Generation would’ve fulfilled its potential? Bit of a random one but swing as we’re in an international mood…

Hungary's most famous son is certainly not Ferenc Puskas as you alluded to in 15:57. Janosz von Neumann is one of a few names that springs to mind

I just wanted to thank you for even trying to pronounce the names correctly. Great research, thank you!

i would predict austria to be the dark horse because under ralf ragnick they have had a revolutionary rise from struggling against andorra and israel to only losing once since november 2022 against belgium, they may have odds as low as 80/1 but all going well they dont play any of the favourites until the semis (finish 2nd in their group which is very possible) and are capable of beating bigger teams like they have done against italy and germany under ragnick, with a very well rounded team full of players all over europe and being ranked currently 25th in the world i dont see why it aint possible we see them in the latter stages of the tournament

A great summary Alfie, looks well researched and the best non-Hungarian video on Hungarian football I have seen. Especially how politics influenced the current state of Hungarian football. Some additions: Újpest was just bought by MOL, the Hungarian state oil company. So, every first division club is now operated by an Orbán ally... Márton Dárdai and his brothers Palkó and Bence are the sons of ex-Hungarian national team player and former Hertha BSC player and manager Pál Dárdai, and their grandfather (also Pál Dárdai) was also a football player and manager in Hungary. So, they have strong connections to Hungary as well. Pál Dárdai (the younger) was also Hungary national team manager before the 2016 Euros and had a great part in getting Hungary to its first major tournament after 30 years. Actually, that campaign and some of the players from that team (Király, Dzsudzsák, Gera, Szalai) are the foundations that the current team could build on. But the manager is very important, because after Dárdai, Bernd Storck managed to get the team to the Euros but then also came the Andorra game... But the 1990s and early 2000s were the lowest time for Hungarian football for sure but the decline started much earlier, in the 1970s, 1980s. And the successes of the national team also paper over a lot of cracks in youth development. Even though there are a lot of resources and a lot of infrastructure has been built, the coaching and management knowledge and capabilities are still sub-par, to say the least. Ferencváros built their success on foreign players mostly who they then sell for a profit. Compared to how much was invested into football, the number of local, Hungarian talents is still low. Even Dominik Szoboszlai is a great example of that, as it was actually his father who coached him in a special, youth development team and then went to Austria to become the player he is. It is mostly not thanks to Hungarian teams or the Hungarian FAs efforts... The best chance for Hungarian talents is probably still this kind of route.

Áustria

Informative and Hilarious. The nazi Germany bit was killer. Norm is looking down from heaven

Alfie surely the teams you listed and the start, and Hungary in this euros, are textbook examples of the ‘Surprise Package’ and not ‘Dark horses’. In my view dark horses are still ‘big countries’ who are maybe 6/78th favourite to win. In this euros I’d say Belgium, Netherlands and at a push maybe turkey. Maybe one for the football cliches podcast this.

How about a video on a Yorkshire XI if it was an independent country and all eligible players switched allegiance. Probably the only chance of Erling Haaland appearing at a major tournament!

Regarding Denmark's very famous 1992 win (and I'm not trying to take anything away.. it was a brilliant performance): There were only 8 qualifying teams entering the actual tournament back then, so IF you got in, obviously with a bit of luck and effort you COULD suddenly go a long way. It was in fact so difficult just to qualify that Denmark only finished 2nd to Yugoslavia which was an Eastern European heavyweight back then. They got disqualified due to the civil war so the Danes were called in absolutely last minute, with most players having already gone on summer holiday 1-3 weeks earlier, some players being phoned up at holiday destinations in Italy and Spain, thinking they were pranked by friends or family and hanging up. But yeah, back then if you were in, you had a much bigger chance of success than today with 24 teams.

Please make a video about the downfall of Romanian National Team who just had one of the most shameful result in history: 0-0 against Liechtenstein

"Hungary will be the dark horse of Euro 2024" Georgia: "ღვინო დამიკავეთ"

They have a strong team compared to previous decades. Great video mate!

Thanks buddy for this GREAT and historical video!👏 I hope all of us get an unforgettable memory on this Euro Cup! A legjobbakat!🇭🇺🫡

Mészáros has about £2.2b as of 2024 Also Újpest is owned by MOL which is part state owned part privately owned (by a friend of Orban of course) oil company

A bit disappointing that you are only talking about one team here for almost 35 minutes, especially given that the plural "dark horses" implied that there would be more teams (yes, I know there is an ambiguity in English with singular terms that are sometimes used as plural). Will there be a more comprehensive EURO prediction with all teams?

So many people saying hungary is the dark horse that at this point that its making them kinda overrated

One of the serious squabbles with this detailed video is its definitely misguided description of the midfield. Both Nagy and - especially - Schäffer are brilliant playera. Schäffer is one of the most underrated players at the moment - but not for long, I hope.

I'm suprised england didn't take more defenders.

as a Hungarian: thanks :D

As history has shown in past tournaments, annointing a team as a 'dark horse' before a major tournament would usually go on to flop in the tournament (e.g. Austria euro 2016, Turkey euro 2020). Therefore, I reckon Hungary shall finish bottom of Group A. Sure they have Szoboszlai and a good defence, but let's just say that there are better teams in Group A (Germany, Switzerland and perhaps maybe even Scotland, but that's up for debate). If anyone deserves the title "dark horse", it should be Ukraine. They got Artem Dovbyk (24 La Liga goals for Girona, who finished 3rd), Oleksandr Zinchenko, Mykhailo Mudryk (while he hasn't played particularly well at Chelsea so far, he usually plays brilliantly for his country) and Andriy Lunin (Real Madrid goalkeeper). While their defence isn't their strong point, at least their team is overall better than Romania (who are unbeaten in qualifying) and Slovakia (featuring Milan Skriniar). Dare I say they could come out on top against Belgium in Group E (sure, they have Kevin de Bruyne, Lukaku and Doku, but Belgium is missing Courtois in goal and their defence is either past their prime or lack experience in international level).

Impressive images you’ve found.

I'm all in on Czechia, maybe I'm just on the Leverkusen hype train but I'm sure their other players can still pull some miracles and make the semis

Very strong team, but the tournament tree is not on their side. If they finish second place in group A they have to play Spain/Italy/Croatia in the next round, which would be the end of the road in my opinion. Even after the match against Group B runners up, they would have to face the winner of England vs some third place in the quarter finals, which is even more unlikely and in the semis you have to expect a football giant anyways, same as the final... Their best bet to make a good run, is to somehow shock everyone, win against germany and finish first in group A so they play the second place of Group C (Denmark or Serbia). Considering the odds of that happening, the 150:1 payment is even too low and it should pay more, hungary would have to write big big history...

Another Italian coach cooking. Even Hungary's Euro 2021 showing was impressive, they held France and Germany in the toughest group and were within a goal of knocking out Germany. I feel either them or Austria will surprise at these Euros.

But did you know, Alfie, that the Hungarian Government also funds football teams from hungarian ethnic communities that live in other countries? For example, in Romania, they fund FK Csíkszereda and OSK Sepsi. And the teams are doing not bad at all.

That, first joke is brilliant mate, only British people will get it but, well played!

Can't believe I have been watching this channel so long

NB I is NB One, written with Roman number. Meaning the top league. As Serie A in Italy.

The Curse Of Alf strikes again...

Alfie, people on the r/gunners sub are talking about the way Saka has been portrayed in the media following the defeat last night against Iceland. I wondered if you would consider doing a deep dive into how the media target the POC British footballers during major tournaments in the UK and perhaps link it to the role they play in almost promoting a racist agenda for right winged media and politics. Thanks mate 🙏🏻

ohh, I remember Turkey Euro 2020 😂

Fucking hell, Alfie lad - get the audio balance sorted. Almost deafened me!

There’s no saying who will win this tournament. But it won’t be England because they are not organised and have spent the last six months or so getting all excited about Jude Bellingham whilst being a great player the rest of it is a mess thrown together at the 11th hour based on club form..

Újpest is now owned by MOL (the hungarian oil company) so all of the 1. league teams owned by Orban's friend. Another cool topic would be how Orban and Hungary owns team from the neighbouring countries of Hungary.

i just got hungary at work sweepstakes this is a sign cheers alfie

I respect your opinion Alfie but I dont see them doing much at the euros. I Could be wrong ofc. But thats just the vibe im getting.

a video about the Welsh premier league would be greatly appreciated

Come on Alfie do you really think we Dutchman are stupid enough to start with Weghorst op front? He is just a sub

Please do a “what on earth is going on at Corinthians” now because if you’ll wait until we get relegated in December, to tell the whole story you gonna need a 3 hour movie