André Silva leads Portugal to Hungary stroll

Four André Silva goals ensured Portugal booked their place in the UEFA European Under-19 Championship semi-finals with a Group A match to spare thanks to an emphatic win against hosts Hungary.

• André Silva takes tournament tally to five goals
• Ivo Rodrigues and Gelson Martins also on target
• Portugal play Austria on Friday for first place in Group A

The FC Porto forward added to Ivo Rodrigues' 32nd-minute opener on the stroke of half-time and scored his second and Portugal's third just past the hour in Felcsut. After Hungary substitute Bence Mervó had pulled one back, Gelson Martins swiftly restored Portugal's three-goal cushion and André Silva then took his personal tally for the evening to four with two more in the final moments.

Portugal had served notice of their attacking intent as early as the second minute when Luís Rafael's deflected shot came back off the crossbar and, after Martins and Hungary's Márió Németh had gone close, broke through just past the half-hour. Ivo Rodrigues drew a foul from Dávid Asztalos and got up to slot in the resulting penalty.

André Silva then missed with a close-range header but it was a rare misjudgement from the forward. He made his mark in the 45th minute, setting Rodrigues away down the right and advancing to sweep in the cut-back. The striker missed another chance early in the second period, shooting against the post after rounding György Székely, but his second goal was not long in arriving as he headed Francisco Ramos' outswinging cross past the goalkeeper at the far post.

Mervó then gave Hungary some momentary respite, converting Szabolcs Varga's low left-wing cross, but two minutes later it was 4-1 as Martins cut through their defence and beat Székely. There was still time for André Silva to complete his hat-trick by tapping in Raphael Guzzo's neat flick and add a crowning fourth, again at close range, from Luís Raphael's low centre, to crown Portugal's impressive progress.

André Silva celebrates scoring the first of his four goals©Sportsfile

Hélio Sousa, Portugal coach
It was a hard game; maybe it doesn't seem so from the result but it was. Our reaction when the score became 3-1 was very good and settled the result. We managed to keep playing our football and get the result. We have achieved our two objectives; to get to the World Cup and reach the semi-finals, but we still have one more game in the group to try to win. In the last game we had more chances to score, today we were more efficient and had players with quality. Our team has to be able to express their skills.

Géza Mészöly, Hungary coach
This was an ignominious defeat, a real blow. Portugal are better than us; we had no chance of victory today but at the same time there is not a five-goal difference between these two teams. I take responsibility for this defeat today but I was expecting much more from some of our key players. When we scored our goal we still believed we could get a point but after that we again made huge mistakes; we just weren't disciplined enough.