After the derby against Újpest, the defending champions doubled their tally in a week. After a 3-1 home win in the MOL Hungarian Cup semi-final on Wednesday, we played MTK at the Új Hidegkuti Nándor Stadion on Sunday afternoon, this time in the 29th round of the OTP Bank Liga.
Head coach Robbie Keane made four changes to the starting line-up for the midweek cup match. Norbert Kaján, Habib Maiga, Eldar Civic and Barnabás Varga were included in the squad.
1st half
Tóth Alex almost continued where he left off against Nyíregyháza: in the 5th minute Civic broke through on goal and played to Varga, who immediately passed to Tóth, but our midfielder shot into Demjén who burst out of his goal.
Fradi started better, we dominated the field from the first minutes, and in the 9th minute it paid off. Civic's corner from the right was met by Stefan Gartenmann in the middle and he slid into the MTK goal (0-1).
We kept the momentum and came close to a second goal, but Demjén saved Tóth's header, who was again threatening. In the 13th minute, however, we celebrated another Fradi goal. Tóth's right-wing corner was met by Gábor Szalai, who headed into the goal (0-2).
MTK first reached the Ferencváros goal in the 18th minute, when Dibusz confidently saved Rajmund Molnár's cross. Fradi continued to dominate the field, even if this was not in terms of chances for almost 20 minutes, but rather in terms of attempts.
In the 38th minute, another fixed spot kick was headed into the home goal by Aleksandar Pesic (0-3). He truly is playing in a great form lately. The Serbian striker has scored nine times in the last nine matches. Eldar Civic, who had two assists, came close to scoring in the 45th minute, but his close free kick was saved by Demjén with great bravura, so Fradi could go into the second half with a 3-0 lead.
2nd half
At the start of the second half, Júlio Romao almost broke the pattern as he tried to score with his foot, but Demjén saved his shot from a sharp angle. At the other end, Ádin Molnár pounced and his dangerous effort was saved by Dibusz. Szalai continued to be a “good header”, but in the 53rd minute he cleared a header from the goal line in front of his own goal.
In the 56th minute, Marin Jurina had a long-range effort that missed the target, but two minutes later the MTK striker broke through on his own and curled into the bottom right corner past the diving Dibusz (1-3).
The goal gave Ferencváros a bit of a block and MTK a boost. So much so that in the 63rd minute, substitute Róbert Polievka shot into the bottom right corner from 18 metres (2-3). The king of the headers, Barnabás Varga, was not to be outdone, but his excellent cross from Tóth was just over the top of the net.
István Bognár, a former Fradi player with a great kicking technique, had a close free kick to worry about, but Dibusz saved safely. Our Hungarian national team goalkeeper then also deflected Molnár's attempt.
In the 88th minute, substitute Lenny Joseph broke into the penalty area on the right, tried to push the ball past Demjén, who was out of his goal, but the home goalkeeper saved to a corner, and our player failed to score for the third match in a row. After the corner, Abu Fani's right-wing cross was headed well over by Varga from the penalty spot.
In the first minute of the three-minute extra time, Krisztián Németh found himself in a clear position in front of the goal after a cross from the left, but Dibusz made a great save to save the equaliser.
OTP BANK LIGA, 29th ROUND
Sunday, 27.04.2025, 15.30
MTK-FTC 2-3 (0-3)
Venue: New Hidegkuti Nándor Stadium, Referee: Káprály Mihály
MTK: Demjén - Végh, Kovács P., Kádár, Horvát A. - Bognár, Kata (Németh K., 81.) - Molnár Á., Kosznovszky, Molnár R. (Polievka, 28.) - Jurina.
Head coach: Dávid Horváth.
FTC: Dibusz - Gartenmann, Cissé (Zachariassen, 82.), Szalai - Kaján (Ben Romdhane, 90+4.), Tóth A., Maiga (Abu Fani, 59.), Júlio Romao, Civic (Ramírez, 59.) - Pesics (Joseph, 59.), Varga B.
Head coach: Robbie Keane.
Scorers: Jurina (58.), Polievka (63.), resp. Gartenmann (9.), G. Szalai (13.), Pesics (39.)
Yellow cards: Kata (44.), Bognár (90+3.), resp. Szalai (76.), Abu Fani (85.)
26-year-old Daniel Arzani arrives at Ferencváros from Melbourne Victory.
The 24-year-old Barnabás Nagy joins Ferencváros from Nyíregyháza Spartacus.
Bence Ötvös, a 27-year-old midfielder, will continue his career in Ferencváros.
The Brazilian footballer last played for Czech club Viktoria Plzen.
With goals from Szalai and Joseph, we won 2-1 in Győr and won our seventh championship title in a row!
After Milicevic's own goal, Pesic and Tóth scored in the last home game of the season.
Ferencváros equalised in the 93rd minute before losing to Paks in a penalty shootout.