After a two-week break for the national team, the 10th round of the OTP Bank League football tournament took place this weekend. The defending champions, led by head coach Dejan Stankovic, were the guests of newcomers Diósgyőri VTK, who started the season well. All three of our Hungarian national team players were in the starting line-up, with our captain Dénes Dibusz in goal, Endre Botka in defence and Barnabás Varga, who also scored against Serbia and Lithuania, in the forward line. Overall, Stankovics appointed the following team against the team from Borsod: Dibusz – Makreckis, Botka, Abena, Cissé, Ramírez – Sigér, Abu Fani, Ben Romdhane – Varga B. , Marquinhos. With a win, our team could take back the first place in the table, while Diósgyőr would have liked to move up from 5th place. A full house gathered for the match at the DVTK Stadion, where we last played on 5 December 2020, behind closed gates due to Covid, and won 3-1.

First half

We started the match. The home team played initially more dangerously, in the 3rd minute DVTK's Slovenian striker Pozeg Vancas tested Dibusz first, who was quick to save the powerful shot to the bottom right corner. Fortunately, the corner kick after that was not dangerous. Our first big chance came from Marquinhos in the 9th minute, after a great start Barnabás Varga had a shot but his rebounded effort was flicked on for a corner. After the spot-kick we could not get a shot on goal. In the 14th minute we took the lead: a beautiful move from the right, Abu Fani crossed to Marquinhos, who broke inside the box, and shot with his left foot. The goalkeeper could clear the ball, but it was right in front of Botka, who made no mistake from 4 meters (0-1).

In the 18th minute Marquinhos tried again, but his curling effort from outside the box was saved by the goalkeeper. Soon after, Tunisia's Ben Romdhane followed Marquinhos' example and his similar flick was well saved by Odincov, then Dibusz had to stretch on the other end and Klimovich headed wide after the re-entry. The derby was very pulsating in these minutes, thanks also to the supporters, who were relentless in their support. In the 29th minute, we had another nice action, and after Ramírez's run up the middle, Ben Romdhane had a clear shot, but missed the target in a great position. Not a minute later, Barnabás Varga had a chance, but as it turned out, he was caught offside. It's true that the opportunity was also missed. DVTK also tried, Pernambuco's strong, flat shot got away from Dibusz, but not far, so he had the ball for the second time. This time we attacked on the right, Makreckis broke through to the baseline, but his centering effort could not be converted by Abu Fani. In the 36th minute, our former player Dániel Gera broke into our penalty area, but just as he was about to shoot, Cissé stepped in front of him.

In the 42nd minute Mohammed Abu Fani curled in from the corner of the penalty area, but the ball bounced out from the base of the left post, but he got on the end of it and the replay was converted into a corner. Before the break, Ramírez almost slid a DVTK free-kick into his own goal. The situation was followed by a right and then a left wing corner, then we could have led a counter-attack, but Marquinhos' pass was a bit too long for Varga, who was alone at the end and unable to finish. In the 45th minute the biggest DVTK chance was missed, Pernambuco spun and laid off Cisse, but his shot was saved by the diving Dibusz. The half time whistle was blown by the referee during an action, which was questioned by Abu Fani, who was shown a yellow card for it. We went into the break with a one goal lead.

Second half

Abu Fani's shooting never stopped, and he opened the second half with a long-range bomb that just missed the left post. In a counter attack, first Ramírez and then Varga were fouled, for the latter Pernambuco received a yellow card, our national striker could not continue, and was replaced by Pesic. In the 56th minute, Ben Romdhane crossed from the right and Marquinhos headed wide of the left post from the five-meter box. We increased our lead in the 61st minute: Ramírez burst forward, launched Pesic, who curled a ball into the bottom left corner (0-2). After our second goal, we made two substitutions: Abena replaced Wingo and Ben Romdhane replaced Owusu. In the 67th minute, Wingo hit Klimovich, who was in the penalty area, and after the incident our defender received a yellow card, DVTK got a penalty, which was converted by Pozeg Vancas (1-2). From nowhere, the Borsod team came back into the game. In the 72nd minute, Ramírez's bomb was saved by Odincov. In the 73rd minute, our team also fought for a penalty, Owusu crossed to Marquinhos after a nice umbrella pass, who was fouled by Szatmári around the penalty spot. Referee Bogár blew the whistle, but VAR retracted it, and then Marquinhos received a yellow for acting. In the restart, the substitutions were really spreading the game and the result didn't change - and there were 10 minutes of extra time... - our team won 2-1 and lead the OTP Bank League!