Our 34-time Hungarian men's football champions played their first UEFA Europa Conference League play-off match against Lithuanian side Zalgiris Vilnius at the LFF Stadium. This round decides which team will qualify for the group stage of the Conference League. Head coach Csaba Máté started with Dibusz - Makreckis, Mmaee, Cissé, Civic - Sigér, Abu Fani - Traoré, Zachariassen, Marquinhos - Varga B.

First half

In the 4th minute, Abu Fani curled a free kick inside the penalty area, Zachariassen's dangerous header was saved by the goalkeeper and Varga could not repeat the effort. Traoré then had a chance to shoot but the ball ended up in the defenders' hands. Again Traoré caused the home side some uncomfortable moments, his shot bouncing off Vucur and into the side netting. We took two corner shots but no chances were created. In the 11th minute Pavelic gave the Lithuanians their first shot, Dibusz saved. Four minutes later, it took another save from Dibusz. In the 17th minute, after a bad pass and a turnover, Traoré found the goal from distance and we took the lead (0-1)! After that, no serious chances were created for a long time, the game was played in the field, only a yellow card for Barnabás Varga was recorded. In the 41st minute Cisse started an attack, after Civic's cross Traoré headed wide, but it was an offside. Then, a Zalgiris cross from the wing looked dangerous towards the end of the first half, but we remained in the lead. Sigér then shot wide and the home side made a substitution.

Second half

At the break our opponents made one change. After two minutes Barnabás Varga found the net, the video referee checked the incident and the goal was disallowed for an offside. In the 57th minute, Abu Fani set up Traore, who put the ball in the middle and the ball bounced off Vucur, the home defender, and into the hands of the goalkeeper. Marquinhos then curled in a shot, but Gertmonas knocked it out.

The action picked up in the 60th minute, Dibusz had to come out of his goal, he managed to get the ball away from Vaca. Three minutes later Varga passed to Marquinhos, who was fouled by his opponent. Gorobsov got a red card and we were able to continue with a man advantage! The penalty was awarded to our Hungarian striker Varga, who scored after shooting into the bottom left corner (0-2)! In the 69th minute Pesics and Tokmac came on for Varga and Marquinhos. It didn't take long for Pesics to increase our lead to three goals (0-3) with a precise shot! Zalgiris tried to answer with a header, but Dibusz had an easy catch.

In the 80th minute, Abu Fani's powerful but less well placed free kick was saved by Gertmonas. Four minutes later, Tokmac moved brilliantly, who passed the ball to Traore for a corner inside the penalty area, and our Malian winger calmly slotted into the net (0-4)!

In the second half, the result remained the same, our team won 4-0 with a very confident and effective football and took a big step towards the group stage.

The return match will be played at home in a week's time, on Thursday 31 August at 20.00.