A late goal from Nemanja Nikolic was not enough to rescue a point for Vidi on Sunday evening.
Vidi played their final home league game of the current season against champions FTC. Match 31 of the OTP league season was played on Sunday evening at the MOL Arena Sosto. Loic Nego was presented with a gift by Zoltan Kovacs on the occasion of his 200th NB I appearance. Manager Imre Szabics named the following side for the game: Kovács D. - Bolla, Rus, Musliu, Stopira - Dárdai, Nego, Pinto, Petryak - Nikolic, Zivzivadze. Ferencvaros manager Sergei Rebrov made 7 changes to the previous game.
The first chance of the game fell to Ferencvaros with Isael shooting wide of the goal from 10 meters after 3 minutes. Isael was again showing his danger in front of goal 4 minutes later with a back heel from close range. Rus was well placed to knock it out for a corner. Pinto and then Petryak shot from distance in the opening 15 minutes, but neither shot provided a threat for keeper Bogdan. Stopira headed wide following a Petryak corner after 18 minutes and then Dardai's powerful left footed shot from 22 meters went wide of the bottom left.
Not long after and Zivzivadze won the ball in the Ferencvaros half and shot just wide of the goal from around 23 meters out. Bogdan also had to be alert to deny Dardai again following another strike on goal. FTC went ahead after 36 minutes: Musliu passing the ball back to Kovacs, in the Vidi goal, who held onto the ball too long and Zubkov was alert to pounce and knock the ball into the back of the net (0-1).
There were no further real chances on goal in the remainder of the first half. We had to wait until the 54th minute for the first real chance of the second period and that resulted in FTC extending their lead: Somalia playing the ball through to Zubkov, who made no mistake as they doubled their lead (0-2).
Petryak took a 61st minute corner, which was headed at goal by Stopira from 12 meters, while Funsho brought a save out of Bogdan after 67 minutes. Stopira's cross on 73 minutes was headed back by Funsho and into the path of Petryak, whose volley rebounded off a defender and out for a corner. Vidi scored a consolation goal 10 minutes from the end: Bolla's sharp cross from the right was pounced on by Nikolic and the ball landed in the back of the net (1-2).
We pushed FTC back in the closing minutes of the game, but without really creating a chance. The closest we came was when Nego found Funsho with a good pass, and he shot from 8 meters, but the ball was blocked. Ferencvaros held onto their lead and won the game 2-1.
We are next in action on Thursday evening when we travel to MTK in the OTP League. We will then face Ujpest in the MOL Hungarian Cup final on the 3rd May.
Author: David Rechnitzer