Thanks to Puskás Akadémia's 2-0 defeat in Győr, our defending champions went into the 27th round of the NB I in Zalaegerszeg knowing that they can take the lead in the OTP Bank League again with a win. Irish head coach Robbie Keane could not count on Adama Traoré and Cebrail Makreckis. The coach has sent the following starting line-up to the ZTE Arena:  Dibusz – Kaján, Gartenmann, Cissé, Szalai, Civic – Tóth A., Maiga, Keita – Varga B., Pesics.

First half

In a pleasant football environment, our team in green and white started the match with more intensity, but for a long time no big situations were created. 
In the 11th minute, the ball was played to Aleksandar Pesic, but the striker, who has been in goal-scoring form, shot over from the penalty spot. In the continuation, both teams tried hard, ZTE looked for a miracle from Croizet, but our defensive midfielders kept a good eye on the Frenchman. Our team tried to play the Varga, Pesics duo mainly with upfield passes. ZTE were more active on the left wing with Mim and Ipalibo, while on the other wing the striker Gartenmann tried to get forward but his long range shot missed the target. In the first half we had more chances and twice as many corners as the home side, but neither side came close to scoring.

Second half

At the break Keane brought on Kehinde for Civic. After the turnaround, the biggest chance of the game was missed in the 57th minute, Vilmos Dénes made a good move out of our defenders, took it past Dibusz, but he drifted and shot into the side netting, but as it turned out, it was from offside. The home side's momentum was greater at the start of the second half and this was thwarted by a yellow card challenge from Gartenmann when he got in front of the onrushing Mim. From the free kick, Dénes had a chance to shoot from 8 metres but the defence blocked well. In the 60th minute there were more FTC substitutions, with Abu Fani, Ramírez and Zachariassen replacing Maiga, Kaján and Keita. In the 72nd minute, they almost took the lead, Tóth fought out a free kick at the right corner of the ZTE penalty area, which Abu Fani curled in, the ball bounced dangerously over a defender, but Bence Gundel-Takács was able to save. Matheus Saldanha came on for Pesics in the 74th minute, the last substitution of the game. 

In the 77th minute, Medgyes' centre was headed out of the goal by Cissé. In the 79th minute, we took the lead: Abu Fani received a free kick 35 metres from the Zala goal, our Israeli player took the spot kick, after which the advancing Gábor Szalai headed in Ferencváros' first goal (0-1).When a deal goes through...In the 84th minute, Ramírez superbly teased the recently substituted Saldanha, who calmly shot into the bottom right corner (0-2). The score remained unchanged in the restart, and the three points were taken from Zalaegerszeg.

Ferencváros is thus now back on top of the OTP Bank League table with 53 points, one point ahead of Puskás Akadémia and two ahead of Paks. In the next Easter round, we will host Nyíregyháza at the Groupama Arena on Sunday at 15:45.