Preview: Hungary vs Finland - prediction, team news, lineups

Just under a week after hosting the Champions League final, the Puskas Arena in Budapest will stage a friendly fixture between Hungary and Finland on Friday evening.

These two European nations will not be competing at the 2026 World Cup after coming up short in UEFA qualifying.

Match preview

World Cup runners-up in 1938 and 1954, Hungary’s agonising absence from football’s biggest international tournament now stretches to four decades after they narrowly missed out on a playoff spot in 2026 UEFA qualifying.

Hungary won two, drew two and lost two of their six group matches and entered their final fixture against the Republic of Ireland needing to avoid defeat to finish second behind Portugal. However, Magyars conceded two late goals, including one in the 96th minute, to suffer a painful 3-2 home defeat.

Despite reports of head coach Marco Rossi handing in his resignation following Hungary’s World Cup heartache, the country’s football federation confirmed at the end of last year that the Italian will remain in charge with a contract running until 2030.

Rossi has overseen 85 international matches in total as Hungary boss since 2018 (W39 D20 L26). His team most recently faced Slovenia and Greece on home soil in friendlies during March’s international break, beating the former 1-0 and drawing 0-0 with the latter.

Ranked 42nd in the world by FIFA, Hungary are now preparing for their first encounter with Finland in eight years when they claimed a 2-0 home victory in the UEFA Nations League.

Finland won the reverse fixture 1-0 just two months earlier, but that represents one of only two triumphs across their last 11 meetings with Hungary in all competitions.

The Nordic nation have fallen to 74th in the FIFA World Rankings having recorded only five wins in their last 21 international matches over a near two-year period. Three of those wins came during 2026 World Cup qualifying, but it was not enough to secure their spot at this summer’s tournament.

Finland - who have never qualified for a World Cup - crucially dropped points in fixtures against Poland, Lithuania and Malta, surprisingly suffering a 1-0 home defeat to the latter in their final qualifier in November 2025 as they settled for a third-placed finish in the group behind the Netherlands and the Poles.

Jacob Friis remains in charge of the Eagle-owls and he has since experienced mixed results in four friendlies that have followed World Cup qualifying. A penalty-shootout loss to Cape Verde (following a 1-1 draw in normal time) took place in between wins over Andorra (4-0) and New Zealand (2-0), but they were most recently thrashed 4-0 by Germany last Sunday.

Hungary form (all competitions):

Finland form (all competitions):

Team News

Hungary’s 29-man squad includes seven uncapped players, including 19-year-old AZ Alkmaar attacker Bendegiz Kovacs and 21-year-old Liverpool goalkeeper Armin Pecsi, who are both in contention to make their debut.

Star midfielder and captain Dominik Szoboszlai, who registered four assists in six World Cup qualifiers last year, is likely to start, while the likes of Milos Kerkez, Roland Sallai, Alex Toth, Andras Schafer and Barnabas Varga could also feature in some capacity.

As for Finland, Joel Pohjanpalo is the most-capped outfield player in Friis’s squad (88) and the Palermo striker is available to lead the line, with Robin Lod and either Oliver Antman or Topi Keskinen potentially providing support in attack from out wide.

Niklas Pyyhtia scored on his international debut at the end of last year and has not played for his country since, but he is a contender to start in midfield this weekend along with Matti Peltola, Anssi Suhonen, Adam Markhiyev and Leo Walta.

Hungary possible starting lineup:

Pecsi; R. Sallai, Orban, Dardai, Kerkez; Szoboszlai, A. Toth, Schafer; Redzic, Vargas, Schon

Finland possible starting lineup:

Hradecky; Alho, Koski, Miettinen, Mahuta; Pyyhtia, Peltola, Suhonen; Antman, Pohjanpalo, Lod

We say: Hungary 2-1 Finland

Hungary’s recent home form leaves a lot to be desired (W2 D4 L4), but they should still be regarded as favourites to beat a Finland outfit who have struggled to grind out positive results on a consistent basis for some time. Should Rossi name a strong lineup, we expect the hosts to prevail in Budapest.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.