The Hungarians, who only reached the finals through the playoffs, took the lead with a rare goal by forward Adam Szalai in the 62nd minute – his first at global level since October 2014.
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The Bayern Munich defender almost put his team in the lead in the opening minute but his 25-yard shot hit the bottom of the right post. It was – finally – Szalai, who collected a superb pass from Kleinheisler before finishing under Almer from close range to get his first goal in 41 matches.
When they thought that they had found an equiliser, Austria suffered a huge setback after ending up in 10 men when Dragovic picked his second yellow card. Then the second counter made it 2-0, which was also unnecessary.
Along with Hungary and Austria, Group F includes Portugal and Iceland, which will played their group stage match later on Tuesday in Saint-Etienne.
A lightning break involving Arnautovic and Martin Harnik scythed through the Hungary backline, but the move was not given the finish it deserved as the latter got his feet in a tangle sliding in at the back post. We need to bounce back as quickly as possible and bring a level of calmness into our game.
Having finished only third in their qualifying group behind Northern Ireland and Romania, Hungary are one of the countries to have benefited from UEFA’s expansion of the finals to 24 teams, enabling them to reach a first major tournament since the 1986 World Cup.
One of the teams expected to do well at Euro 2016, Austria, were surprisingly beaten 2-0 by rank outsiders, Hungary, in Bordeaux. “It will be a tough test – Iceland qualified brilliantly, but we’ ll try to focus on them and take things slowly, step by step”.
The praise was echoed by Hungary’s impressive midfielder Laszlo Kleinheisler. After just 1 minute, Alaba was close to score the fastest ever goal in Euro Championships history, but was denied by the post.
Five minutes of added time saw Hungary play down the clock and earn a historic win for manager Bernd Storck and his team.
Goalkeeper Gabor Kiraly, the first 40-year-old to play at a European Championship, was beaten on that occasion but made an excellent save from Zlatko Junuzovic 10 minutes before half-time. “We can go a little bit more relaxed into the next game”, Iceland coach Heimir Hallgrimsson said.
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Priskin, 35 yards from his own goal, played the ball into Stieber who ran after it, sprinted into the box and then chipped it past Almer to make it 2-0. Stieber, who had a spell on loan at Yeovil Town in the 2007-08 season, was not so forgiving in the 87th minute and showed wonderful composure to dink the ball over Almer after Tamas Priskin, the former Ipswich Town forward, sent him clear on the right.
