Portugal's national eleven beat Hungary 1-0 at Budapest's Puskas stadium Thursday night, relegating the home team to 4th place in its group.
Portugal took the lead in the 10th minute with a goal by Pepe and never looked back.
Hungary will play two more games in the group, one against Portugal, a team it has been unable to beat in any of their nine previous contests, and one against Denmark, which is in first place in the qualifier group. Both will be away games for Hungary.
Portuguese coach Carlos Queiroz said he felt the Hungarian side had been playing a closed game and accepted the single-goal defeat early on. But, he added, "This group is still open because whoever wins the next two could have a ticket to South Africa."
Hungarian coach Ervin Koeman blamed Hungary's lower level of technical skills for the defeat. "We were on the ball mentally and played well technically. But they scored the goal and we didn't."
Acknowledging that Hungary was not considered likely to win its next two away games, he said "...but that's no reason why we can't win in Portugal and Denmark. No one would have believed we'd still have a mathematical chance after eight games."
(Xinhua News Agency September 10, 2009)
