gera penalty wins it for hungary published: saturday 8 september 2007, 23.24cet hungary 1-0 bosnia-herzegovina the visitors' qualifying hopes took a severe blow after zoltán gera scored the only goal of the group c game.
bosnia-herzegovina's hopes of qualifying for uefa euro 2008™ took a severe blow in szekesfehervar as zoltán gera's first-half penalty helped hungary to another victory against their group c rivals.
under threat the west bromwich albion fc forward was among the scorers almost a year ago to the day when hungary triumphed 3-1 in zenica, and gera found the net again in the 39th minute today – drilling his spot-kick high into the top-left corner after róbert feczesin had been felled by ivan radeljic. the win moved fifth-placed hungary on to nine points from eight games, while bosnia-herzegovina dropped from second to fourth after both turkey and norway picked up points in later games.
impressive fülöp gera was not the only hero for hungary: goalkeeper márton fülöp giving an early indication of his fine form when turning behind a zlatan muslimovic effort. radeljic was shown a yellow card for his part in the penalty award, although gera's fierce strike was a more effective punishment. fülöp was then to the fore again, tipping a close-range muslimovic header over the bar and following that up by collecting confidently from the resulting corner.
muslimovic foiled hungary went into the interval a goal to the good after fülöp foiled muslimovic once more, although the hosts were the first to threaten in the second half as visiting keeper adnan gušo kept out feczesin's strike from the edge of the box. neither no1 was forced into anything other than a routine stop after that, however, as hungary comfortably held on to record their third victory of the campaign.