MILOS Kerkez and Hungary are one victory away from securing their place at next summer's EUROs after defeating Serbia 2-1 on Saturday evening.

Cherries defender Kerkez played the full 90 minutes as the Hungarians defeated the country of his birth for the second time in the qualification campaign for the 2024 edition of the tournament, set to be staged in Germany.

The goalscoring action was consigned to 14 minutes of first-half action, the Magyars taking the lead through Barnabas Varga on 20 minutes before Serbia equalised through Strahinja Pavlovic 13 minutes later.

But Hungary took just 60 seconds to regain their lead, Roland Sallai scoring what proved to be the winner on 34 minutes.

A late red card for substitute Zslot Kalmar in stoppage time turned out to be inconsequential, as Hungary moved three points clear of Serbia with a game in hand.

With three games remaining, Hungary are five points clear of Montenegro, meaning victory away in Lithuania on Tuesday night would secure qualification with two games spare.

That is because with two teams qualifying from each group, combined with the fact Serbia face Montenegro, only one of their Balkan rivals could overhaul their points tally.

In total, Kerkez has been capped 11 times by Hungary since September 2022.