After the UEL play-off return leg in Ireland during the week, the defending Hungarian champions and cup winners were back in the OTP Bank League Sunday afternoon, this time against Budapest Honvéd. Stanislav Cherchesov put his confidence into the eleven of Bogdán - Botka, Knoester, Kovacevic, Civic - Besic, Vécsei - Traoré, Mercier, Marquinhos - Boli.

First half

Our team started the match and the first attempt was ours: in the third minute Mercier shot right but was blocked by the defence. Less than half a minute later, Traoré and Boli played together on the right wing, the latter centred, but our Malian winger could not get a shot off. In the eighth minute, after a left-wing attack, Krisztián Tamás's cross from the left hit the crossbar.

The visitors had the ball for only a short period of time and rarely crossed the half line. In the 18th minute, Traoré passed to free Mercier, who tried to get a left foot on the ball but his shot bounced and a corner was awarded. After a quick drinking break, Marquinhos broke inside the penalty area but Szappanos moved well clear.

In the 30th minute, after a fine pass from Marquinhos, Boli went one-on-one and the Ivorian striker tried to lift Szappanos, who saved with a one-handed save. Two minutes later, Vécsei was on target, but his flat shot missed the target and the score remained 0-0. In the closing stages of the first half, our Hungarian national team midfielder set up Boli with a brilliant cross, who easily beat his defender but could not outwit Szappanos.

Moments later, however, the veteran goalkeeper could not help his team: After a great pass from Marquinhos, Traoré fired into the net (1-0). There were chances for both sides in the final minutes, but no further goals were scored and we went into the break with a 1-0 lead.

Second half

We made one change at the break: Besic was replaced by Laidouni.

After the turnaround, we kept up the pace and threatened twice in the first five minutes, but first the defence saved and then Marquinhos' cross flew over everyone, but we still managed to get a corner. After the corner kick, it looked as if Honvéd could free up their box, but Traoré rose to head home a cross from the right (2-0).

Two minutes later, the fans could celebrate again as Traoré scored his hat trick (3-0) after a great cross from Mercier. In the 59th minute, Zachariassen replaced Traoré and left the pitch to applause. Two changes were made in the 65th minute: Esiti and Tokmac came on for Marquinhos and Mercier.

Two minutes later, Zsótér shot from a corner, but Bogdán saved nicely, but moments later the video referee indicated that Honvéd could shoot a penalty. Zsótér stood behind the ball, but the visitors' penalty was wasted and the three-goal Fradi lead remained. Ten minutes before the end of normal time, Kovacevic scored in the area of our own sixteen, and we immediately counter-attacked, but Tokmac's shot was saved by Szappanos.

In the last minute of extra time, Prenga scored with a header from a left-wing cross (3-1) to set the final score.

Our men's football team beat Budapest Honvéd 3-1 in front of 10,213 spectators.