UEFA European U19 Championships
Prague & Liberec, Czech Republic
14-26 July 2008
Click here for the full tournament details 

Next month sees England U19s head to the Czech Republic for the 2008 UEFA European U19 Championships.

After qualifying through the Elite Round games in Belarus, England will face the Czech Republic, Italy and Greece in Group B whilst last year's champions Spain will contest Group A with Germany, Hungary and Bulgaria.

Over the next few days, we will look at the other teams in the competition and how they qualified, starting with Hungary.

The Magyars secured their place in the competition with an impressive victory against Portugal in the Elite Round group stage, which also contained Lithuania and Cyprus.

It had looked as though the Portuguese would be qualifying as they only needed a draw to seal their place in the finals but with the scores level at 0-0 in the second half, a goal from Liverpool’s Krisztián Németh in the 62nd minute gave Hungary the lead at the Sóstói Stadium in Szekesfehervar.

They held on to win the game, helped by the sending off of Portugal’s Romeu Ribeiro and the result changed the whole outlook of the mini qualifying group and sent previous favourites Portugal crashing out.

They had previously won all five of their qualifying and Elite Round matches, but the defeat to Hungary saw them finish the group with just six points as opposed to Hungary’s seven.

Hungary now open their tournament against Bulgaria in Zizkov on Monday 14 July, only the second game of the competition following England’s game with the Czech Republic.