Hungary's Thrilling Night: Szoboszlai Shines Amidst Chaos

For a few fraught seconds in Debrecen, football stopped mattering.

Midway through the first half of Hungary’s friendly with Kazakhstan at the Nagyerdei Stadion, a TV camera suspended high from the stadium roof began to smoke. Fire had damaged the cable holding it 20 metres above the pitch. In the 26th minute, the cable finally gave way.

The heavy rig plummeted to the turf and smashed into the ground just a couple of metres from a pitchside cameraman. Metal, glass, debris – and stunned silence. It could have been horrific.

Somehow, nobody was hurt. Players and officials stood watching as the wreckage was cleared and the immediate danger passed. Only once the twisted camera was removed did the match tentatively restart.

From there, the story belonged to Dominik Szoboszlai.

Szoboszlai takes control

Hungary had already made life complicated for themselves. Kazakhstan struck first, taking a ninth-minute lead and briefly quietening the home crowd. The hosts chased the game, still perhaps distracted when the camera incident forced that surreal stoppage.

After the break, their captain dragged them back.

Szoboszlai, wearing the armband and carrying the responsibility that comes with it, levelled early in the second half. The Liverpool midfielder found the equaliser to reset the contest and jolt Hungary into life.

The pressure told again. This time Szoboszlai turned provider, threading the pass for Andras Schäfer to put Hungary 2-1 up and flip the evening on its head. From a goal down and a stadium scare, Marco Rossi’s side suddenly had control and their star man was at the centre of it all.

A Liverpool debut between the posts

There was another Anfield storyline woven into the night. With Hungary now on top, the second half brought a senior international debut.

Armin Pecsi, Liverpool’s young reserve goalkeeper, came on just after the hour mark to win his first cap. The 21-year-old, who joined the Reds last summer and is still waiting for a first-team appearance at club level, finally stepped onto the international stage.

His name had already flickered close to the spotlight in April, when he was almost called into action at Anfield against Crystal Palace after Freedie Woodman required lengthy treatment, with both Alisson Becker and Giorgi Mamardashvili out injured. That chance never came. Debrecen did.

Pecsi’s introduction passed without the drama that had marked the first half, which on this occasion was exactly what Hungary needed from their goalkeeper.

Hungary finish the job

As the clock ticked into stoppage time, Bournemouth’s Alex Tóth sealed the result, making it 3-1 and putting a cleaner gloss on a chaotic evening. The scoreline reflected Hungary’s eventual authority, even if the route there was anything but routine.

Szoboszlai finished with a goal and an assist, the captain’s performance shining through the strangeness of the night. Pecsi had his debut. Milos Kerkez, another with Premier League ties, watched on without featuring.

For all three, there will be no FIFA World Cup football this month after Hungary failed to qualify. That reality hangs over this international window.

But in Debrecen, under the floodlights and after a camera fell from the sky, they still found a way to turn a hazardous, unsettling evening into a reminder of their resilience – and of the Liverpool influence running through this Hungary side.