Football Bet of the Day: Magyars can end season on a high

Hungary take on Kazakhstan in a friendly in Debrecen on Tuesday (6pm kick-off) that will complete their international schedules until the Nations League gets under way after both sides failed to qualify for the World Cup. While that is less surprising for Tuesday's visitors, the Magyars will be mightily disappointed after they surrendered a stoppage-time winner to the Republic of Ireland in their final qualifying match that saw them drop to third in the group, ultimately missing out on a place in the play-offs.

It has now been 40 years since the two-time finalists last appeared at the World Cup and such was head coach Marco Rossi's frustration with the result that he offered his resignation. However, it speaks volumes that the Hungarian FA still see him as the right man for the job to perhaps lead them into a new era. Rossi's men should be desperate to end their season on a high note as they begin to build for the future. 

Hungary vs Kazakhstan Odds

The impending start of the World Cup might have Hungary still ruing that fateful night in November, when their failure to kill off the Irish ultimately proved so costly when Troy Parrott's second levelled matters with 10 minutes to go.

Hungary's fate was still in their hands at the time but the former Tottenham striker completed his hat-trick deep into stoppage-time to seal the comeback and it was the Irish who progressed to the play-offs.

Rossi should be in no mood to take things easy, given that he offered his resignation in the first place, and Kazakhstan might just be on the receiving end on Tuesday.

The Magyars have begun the post World Cup failure rebuild with a three-game unbeaten run, with Friday's 2-1 win over Finland making it two wins in that time. A third is on the cards on Tuesday.

While the focus might well be trained on that defeat to Ireland, on home territory, it is worth remembering that they were playing to protect their second-placed position in the group, and had still unleashed 18 shots at goal with seven of those on target.

Hungary had lost only one other game in qualifying, outgunned in a 3-2 defeat to Portugal, before holding the same opponents to a thrilling 2-2 draw in Lisbon, while they also drew 2-2 in Ireland.

Kazakhstan have enjoyed a recent upturn in results, losing just one of their last seven games which includes holding Belgium to a 1-1 draw, but they were beaten 6-0 on the road by the Red Devils while the defeat also came away from home against the Faroe Islands.

Simply put, the Hawks do not travel well and have lost 12 of their last 15 road trips, admittedly drawing two of the last three, including Saturday's 1-1 draw in Armenia, while their one win in that dismal sequence was a 2-0 success in Liechtenstein back in March of 2025.

With Dominik Szoboszlai the class act on show and very much pulling the strings for the hosts and fresh faces looking to impress, Hungary can sign off the season in comfortable fashion.

While a home win and over 3.5 goals looks very tempting at 7/4, a little caution is applied with 2.5 goals taken.

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