Hungary claim battling draw against Euro favourites!

Budapest. — Antoine Griezmann rescued France, but in the frenzied atmosphere of Budapest came a sliver of hope for those hoping to stop them adding the European title to the World Cup won three years ago.

Many have taken one glance at the strength of talent within the French squad, and decided they will glide effortlessly through this competition.

Didier Deschamps has never been among them.

He has always warned against complacency, and here Hungary offered some solid evidence to support his concerns.

Roared on by another 61 000 capacity crowd, Marco Rossi’s unfancied side took the lead on the stroke of half-time through Attila Fiola.

Attila the Hungarian had only scored one other goal for his country, and that was against Andorra.

Little wonder there was a raucous reaction from him, and the majority of those inside the Puskas Arena.

The Magyars used to have the best international team on the planet but that was many years ago and they glimpsed one of the greatest results in their modern footballing history.

France, however, fought back and found a way not to lose as the best teams do.

They trailed for little more than 20 minutes before Griezmann levelled and they went for the winner but found the Hungarian defence and their goalkeeper Peter Gulcasi were not going to be moved easily.

Gulacsi was immense, as he was against Portugal, saving late efforts from Kylian Mbappe and Corentin Tolisso and deserving his luck when Ousmane Dembele fired against a post.

Hungary celebrated as if they had won the competition and the noise they are generating in this stadium might yet convince UEFA to move the final stages of Euro 2020 to Budapest.

The din gave the contest a strong tempo despite the soaring temperatures, into the 30s by kick-off.

France were forced to defend set-pieces and resist before they managed to strike their rhythm and N’Golo Kante began to dominate the central areas of the pitch.

Hungary goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi dived low to keep out a fizzing drive from Karim Benzema.

He, somehow, saved the follow-up effort from Antoine Griezmann, who really ought to have found the net but was ruled to be offside. — Dailymail.