Zoltan Stieber's late goal give Hungary win away to Finland

REUTERS/Jussi Nukari/Lehtikuva

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Zoltan Stieber claimed a late winner as Hungary recorded a narrow 1-0 victory over Finland in their Euro 2016 qualifier at the Olympiastadion on Saturday.

The former Aston Villa youth player netted after 82 minutes to claim all three points as Hungary widened the gap to their fourth-placed opponents to seven points in the Group F table and kept the pressure on the top two - Romania and Northern Ireland - in Helsinki.

The visitors started well and could have taken an early lead had Zoltan Gera's header just outside the box not been held out of the Finland net by goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky after seven minutes.

The 36-year-old midfielder was denied again moments later as Hradecky claimed his close-range strike heading towards the bottom-left corner.

Stieber and captain Balazs Dzsudzsak both tested the Finland stopper as Hungary began to dominate proceedings with Dzsudzsak coming close to opening the scoring again midway through the first half before his effort was blocked.

Ten minutes before the break, Gera had another go for the away side before Finland had their first real chance of the game but Roman Eremenko failed to send home Teemu Pukki's cross as he fired the ball over the crossbar.

Hungary almost broke the deadlock seven minutes into the second half as Daniel Tozser set up Krisztian Nemeth, but his shot from the centre of the penalty box was blocked.

Perparim Hetemaj sent his header wide of the mark after 67 minutes as the hosts tried their luck, but their opponents took a well-deserved lead with eight minutes remaining following another spell of pressure from Pal Dardai's side.

The long-awaited goal arrived as Hamburg midfielder Stieber fired home from the edge of the 18-yard box after a header to clear a free-kick moments earlier fell to him and he slotted the ball into the bottom corner to grab his country's third victory of the group.