Thanks to Saturday's win over Serbia and their previous results, the Hungarian national football team took to the pitch in Kanunas on Tuesday to face Lithuania in a European Championship qualifier, knowing that with two rounds of qualifying remaining they can secure their place at next year's continental tournament. A number of scenarios would have been sufficient to achieve this. Two of Ferencváros' players, Dénes Dibusz and Barnabás Varga, were in the starting line-up against Lithuania, while Endre Botka started on the bench.

We first threatened in the 9th minute, when Dániel Gazdag crossed the ball in front of the goal after a pass from Kerkez Milos, but Nego Loic could not reach the ball. Two minutes later, at the end of a counter-attack, Gineitis shot at goal from 16 metres but missed. The match was not full of situations at the start, but the Hungarian team's dominance in possession was clearly evident. It was all for nothing when Cernych shot into the bottom left corner in the 20th minute (1-0)

Ten minutes later, Dominik Szoboszlai had a chance to equalise, but the home side saved to a corner. Two corner kicks followed, the second of which was headed over by Attila Szalai. In the 33rd minute, Roland Sallai missed a shot and it looked like we had our opponents pinned down, but in the 36th minute the Lithuanians doubled their lead - Sirvys nodded home a corner from close range (2-0).

It would have been important to close up again in the first half, but we failed to do so. The closest we came was in the 43rd minute, when Barnabás Varga shot from close range after Sallai's cross, but the Lithuanian goalkeeper saved. We went into the break two goals down.

After half-time came another cold shower almost immediately, but the third Lithuanian goal was disallowed for offside.

National team captain Marco Rossi made two substitutions in an attempt to freshen up the squad, with Dibusz and Varga both able to continue, while Botka remained on the bench.

After the 50th minute, the Hungarian attack came back to life: in the 56th minute we threatened from a corner - Barnabás Varga headed in from six metres, but Zubas' goalkeeper saved. Zubas also saved in the 61st minute when Nego headed towards the goal. In the 67th minute, we had a chance to equalise after the Lithuanian goalkeeper had swept away Roland Sallai inside the penalty area - the awarded penalty was bombed under the bar by Dominik Szoboszlai. This reopened our chances in the game (2-1).

In the 76th minute Sallai missed a shot, but in the 82nd minute Barnabás Varga revived our hopes after he headed the ball into the Lithuanian goal to make it 2-2. Varga scored his fourth goal in a row in a European Championship qualifying match, making him the all-time leading scorer, statistics no other national team player has achieved before! 

Then, in the other group match, Serbia were leading 3-1 against Montenegro, so we knew we had to win to decide the qualification for the European Championship. Marco Rossi substituted Barnabas Varga for Adam Martin and Sallai for Bolla Bendegúz in extra time, but there was no further change and the score remained 2-2. The Serbs' victory postponed our European qualification for the time being. After six games, Hungary are top of the group with 14 points, while Serbia, who have played seven times, are second with 13 points.

We continue on 16 November in Bulgaria, before the final qualifying round on 19 November against Montenegro.