The so far undefeated champion team of Ferencváros was the guest of newcomer Vasas in the 6th round of the OTP Bank League. Although we met Vasas last year, and beat them 2-0 in the MOL Hungarian Cup season's round of 16, the last time we played a similar match in the top flight was in May 2018, when we finished with a 1-1 draw. Our club has been on a forced march for weeks, through the qualifying period, but before the UEFA Europa League group games we play two derbies in the capital this week, after Vasas we will host Újpest on Sunday. So Stanislav Cherchesov will have to rotate his squad well. Our head coach drawn up the following starting line-up for the encounter with Vasas today: Bogdán - Wingo, Kovacevic, Knoester, Botka - Esiti, Laidouni - Zachariassen, Tokmac, Traoré - R. Mmaee.

First half

Vasas started the match. After a free kick from the home team, the ball was first in front of the goal, Esiti slid the ball to a corner after a free kick from the right. After the corner, Bogdán fisted the ball away. Our team was getting more and more fired up by the minute. First, Laidouni's ball to R. Mmaee indicated that we were trying to crack the home defence with flat clearances, then Esiti played to our Moroccan striker again, who was cleared for a corner. The ball, which had initially passed everyone by, went to Tokmac, who bombed over from 12 meters. In the 11th minute, Holender got on the end of a good ball but the international striker, returning from Partizan in Serbia, was caught and tackled by Adnan Kovacevic. In the 14th minute, Endre Botka, who was wearing our team captain's armband, was brought down from behind. No yellow card. In the 17th minute, our superiority was converted: Laidouni crossed the ball into the middle, and our Norwegian player Kristoffer Zachariassen, who had recovered from injury, shot straight after a cross from 16 metres out, the ball bounced off a defender and fell into the goal over Jova (0-1).

In the 24th minute, Holender had a free kick from 22 metres out, but his effort missed the goal. In the 26th minute, Esiti kicked Otigba, but the counter-attack could continue, at the end of which Knoester nicely tackled Márkvárt. However, referee Andó-Szabó showed our Nigerian midfielder a yellow card. In the 35th minute, Vasas seemed to have equalised from nothing, Hinora played a low cross from the right, Kovacevic tried to save from Holender, but the ball went off his foot and into our goal. It was not a own goal, however, because the attack was preceded by an offside position, which was confirmed by VAR. Three minutes later, Hinora tried to play Holender again, but this time Kovacevic was confident. Before the break, Tokmac drove the ball through midfield, crossed superbly to Traoré, but his shot was blocked by a defender. On the counter-attack, Knoester had to save from Holender. In the last moments Hinora fired in a free kick from 23 yards out, the dangerous shot was saved greatly by Bogdán.

Second half

Goalscorer Zachariassen headed the ball home to start the second half. Stanislav Cherchesov substituted Botka, who had taken a kick, at the break and Eldar Civic continued in his place. The captain's armband went to Aissa Laidouni. The teams wrestled until the 55th minute, when a left-wing corner was crossed to the far post, where Tokmac curled the ball back, but Traoré's header bounced off the post. Hinora had a chance in front of the goal shortly afterwards but his flick rebounded off Civic. In the 60th minute, Ryan Mmaee fought out a promising free-kick. Laidouni shot on goal but the ball missed the top right corner by inches. In the 64th minute, Ádám Bogdán was shown a yellow card for touching the ball outside the penalty. In the 70th minute, first Berecz fired over, then came three home substitutions: Márkvárt, Deutsch, Holdender came off, while Pátkai, Silye and Géresi came on. In the 72nd minute we had another cross from the right, this time Wingo sent the ball in, Traoré slid in a superbly saved shot, Jova pushed it out from under the bar. Immediately afterwards, Ryan Mmaee was replaced by Franck Boli. A huge chance was missed in the 78th minute, Boli dribbled his way to the baseline, crossed, Adama Traoré shot flat but Hidi cleared the ball off the goal line. Dávid Sigér came on in the 87th minute. In the minutes of extra time, even a free kick missed our goal, and we fought for the second goal until the last seconds.

Our team is now second in the table with four wins from four games, 2 points behind Kisvárda, who played two games more and collected 14 points so far. Our next match will be the derby in Újpest on Sunday, September 4, at 17:30