Hungary and Belarus break through

Hungary and Belarus moved through from UEFA European Under-17 Championship qualifying round Group 1 at the expense of Norway and Andorra.

Going into the final day, Hungary led Norway and Belarus by three points with Andorra yet to get off the mark. While Belarus beat Andorra 5-0, Hungary found themselves trailing Norway at half-time only for Gergely Bobál to come off the bench and score twice, the second in the final minutes, for a 3-2 victory and first place.

Staging the group with the aim of keeping up their record of never going out at this stage since the U17 competition began in 2001, Hungary opened with a 4-1 defeat of Belarus in which Krisztián Tamás scored twice, the first a penalty. Norway overcame Andorra 3-0 as Vajebah Sakor struck twice and Christian Bjerkenes added another in added time.

Two days later Norway were beaten 3-0 by Belarus, Sergei Vodyanovich and Evgeni Morozov scoring in the first half and despite Valeri Gorbachik's 55th-minute dismissal, Sergei Vodyanovich added a third. Hungary claimed a second win, 4-0 against Andorra through Gergely Bobál, Dávid Asztalos, another Tamás penalty and Zoltán Farkas.

The upshot was that Belarus knew defeating Andorra would almost certainly get them into the elite round and Vasili Zhurnevich, Morozov, Gleb Rassadkin, substitute Rоman Gribovski and Dmitri Vershitski all scored against opponents reduced to nine men. Norway therefore would have needed a three-goal win against Hungary for a top-two finish.

Although Tamás struck on 27 minutes from close range for Hungary, Bård Finne, turned in a Dæhli Mats Møller through ball at the second attempt anda Mats Møller Dæhli put Bård Flovik's side ahead at the break with a shot from distance. However, Bobál then emerged to turn the game, equalising after good work from the impressive Dominik Nagy and flicking in dangerous Márió Németh free-kick in added time for a deserved Hungary win.

If Norway are to join Hungary and Belarus in the 29 November draw for March's elite round, they will need to finish as one of the two third-placed sides in the 13 groups with the best record against the leading pair in their section, and their last-gasp loss today could be costly.