Estonia Loses to Hungary, World Cup out of Reach
The Estonian national football team lost 5-1 to Hungary in Tuesday's World Cup qualifying game, bringing the blue shirts back to earth after their surprise draw against the Netherlands on Friday.
The loss means Estonia now has no chance of making it to the World Cup next year.
Head coach Tarmo Rüütli seemed to have already come to that conclusion before the match, fielding a largely second-string team, with only Sergei Pareiko, Henri Anier, Martin Vunk and captain Ragnar Klavan keeping their starting places after the Netherlands game.
The new faces failed to clinch the opportunity, with the away team showing slack defense and a lack of inspiration in their attacks.
Klavan scored an own goal on the 11th minute, which was followed by goals from Hungary on the 21st and 41st minutes.
Tarmo Kink, who plies his trade in the Hungarian football league, pulled one back on the 48th minute, and for a few minutes it looked like Estonia might pull out another surprise.
Hungary ended the mini-revival on the 69th minute, and added a fifth goal, from a free-kick, on the 85th minute.
In exactly one month, Turkey's team will travel to Estonia for the next match, followed by the last game of the qualifying round in Romania. Both opponents are still in with a chance of making it to Brazil next year, while Estonia is likely to carry on experimenting with new players. If the Estonian youngsters fail to shine, we can expect two very one-sided matches.