Goals from Palko Dárdai and Kenan Kodro earned three points against Kispest.
The 31st round of the OTP Bank Liga took place in the middle of the week as our team hosted Budapest Honvéd in the second match of the day on Tuesday at 18:30 at the MOL Arena Sósto. Michael Boris couldn't count on Fiola, Makarenko and Szendrei due to injury, so he went for the starting line-up of Kovács D - Rus, Stopira, Shabanov - Nego, Zulj, Pinto, Dárdai, Heister - Kodro, Nikolic. Our opponent's goal was kept by former Vidi keeper Tomas Tujvel and another of our champions, Krisztián Tamás, was on the pitch from the first minute, while our third former player Donát Zsótér started on the bench.
The game started with a chance for the away side as in the 3rd minute Traoré's header went wide, but two minutes later Kodro's shot was saved by Tujvel. Almost a quarter of an hour into the game, Dárdai outmuscled Petkovics and shot wide from 17 yards, and four minutes later Kovács was at work, making a brave save from Jonsson. We took the lead in the 25th minute! Zulj crossed the ball to Kodró, who fed the ball to Dárdai, and Palkó shot into the net from 13 metres out, Tujvel could not save (1-0).
After taking the lead in the 29th minute, Nikolic missed Nego's cross while five minutes later Jonsson's header rattled the top bar, and the real twist came at the end of the half - Nego's right-wing cross was passed on to the unmarked Kodró, who made no mistake from close range (2-0)! Shortly after the goal, Balázs Berke blew for the end of the fist half.
At the break, neither head coach made any changes and the second forty-five minutes started like the first, with a Traoré header, but Kovács didn't have to save this time either. In the 53rd minute, Traoré threatened with his foot this time, but his powerful shot from 20 metres out was confidently gathered by Kovács. Ten minutes later, Zulj's goal-bound shot bounced past the Honvéd goal, then Batik headed a corner towards the goal, but the ball rebounded off Traoré and into the hands of Kovács. In the 68th minute, Shabanov broke forward and took a shot, but his long-range attempt was no real threat to the Kispest goal. A minute later, we had another Traoré header but the visitors' striker was again unable to find the net.
In the 75th minute, we saw the usual scenario, Traoré headed, this time he found the goal, but Kovács saved. For the last ten minutes, Michael Boris made some changes, with Petryak and Funsho coming on for Nikolic and Dárdai. As soon as he came on, a few minutes later Petryak made a clever run down the right, his cross was cleared out by Tujvel, but the ball was fed to Kodro, but one of the Kispest defenders made a great tackle. Barely a minute had passed when Pinto-Petryak-Nego combined but Funsho's corner was cleared by the visitors. It was the Portuguese midfielder's last move and he was replaced by Alef towards the end. In the 88th minute, Lukic's close-range low shot from an acute angle rolled past the goal-line. It was the last exciting moment of the match, with Bese coming on for Nego in extra time, and Berke ending the game in the 93rd minute, as we beat Budapest Honvéd 2-0 at home!
Author: David Rechnitzer