Result: Lombard Papa - Videoton FC 2-3 (0-0)

An Alves double and a winner from Nikolics secures three points for Vidi

Lombard Papa - Videoton FC 2-3 (0-0)
Perutz stadium, Papa
Papa: Szűcs, Tóth, Rodenbücher, Totadze, Présinger, Horváth, Ganugrava, (Germán, 86.), Lovrencsics
(Varga 80.), Maric, Puri, (Zulevs, 59) ,Ferenczi
Videoton: Tujvel, Oliveira, Caneira, Vinicius, Hector, Gosztonyi, (Nagy 75), Sándor, (Evandro 64.), Mitrovic, Tóth., Elek, (Alves, 64.), Nikolic
OTP League Div 1    

Friday 28th Oct
Diosgyőr - Haladas 1-0
Saturday 29th Oct
Papa - Videoton 2-3
Kaposvar - Vasas 0-0
Paks - ZTE 4-2
Pecs - Győri ETO 3-1
Ujpest - Kecskemet 3-1
Sunday 30th Oct
Debrecen - Honved    
Siofok - Ferencvaros    

Videoton FC produced the needed performance to emerge from the Perutz stadium with all three points. However, they did it the hard way having to twice come from behind in a second half, which produced five goals. Andre Alves, who has been batling with an injury all week, was named as one of the subs, with Nikolics given the role up front. With Brachi missing, it meant that Paulo Sousa was forced into a reshuffle, which saw Oliveira play at right back, with a recall at left back for Hector. Caneira continued his partnership alongside Vinicius at the heart of defence. Gosztonyi played on the right while Elek, Mitrovics and Sandor occupied the other midfield places.

Videoton played in their all white strip, with keeper Tujvel emerging in a smart new goalkeeper's top. There was a small crowd present for this Saturday fixture, which kicked off early at 15:00pm. Vidi were backed by a noisy away following, who travelled in the hope of witnessing another away win, following Wednesday's cup victory, away at second division Tatabanya. Paulo Sousa's side knew that three points would push them back among the front runners. The conditions in Papa made it perfect to play good football with the nice autumn weather being around 15c.

The second minute saw home defender Ganugrava give away the ball, which fell to Nikolics who blasted over. Tujvel was called upon in the visiting goal after four minutes, saving a Lovrencsics effort. Szucs did well on 12 minutes to get down quickly to save a Sandor shot on the line. That was a warning shot for things to come as Vidi continued to press forward in search of their second away win of the season. Caniera found himself in the referee's book, as once again Szucs kept the home side in the game with a double save. In fact the veteran keeper was called upon regularly to save his side.

A corner on 36 minutes resulted in Marics heading the ball back from the far post into the path of Ferenczi, who shot over from almost under the crossbar. Nikolics then played Sandor in for the last chance of the first half, but the midfielder lobbed the keeper and also the crossbar. The first half ended goaless but the second period was much more exciting. The home side took the lead on the hour when Lovrencsis escaped down the right before his cross was touched home by Marics who connected almost on the goal line. Paulo Sousa decided to add some firing power, bringing on Alves and Evandro to spice things up. The response was almost instant, as Toth's cross from the left was volley home by Alves to make it 1-1. However, Papa went back down the other end to get back in the lead. Marics' powerful shot was touched home by the powerful Ferenczi to make it 2-1.

Oliveira's cross on the right eluded everyone but ended up landing at the feet of Alves, who kept his composure to curl the ball in the net to level. It was no more than Vidi deserved as they continued to look for the possible winner. Playing good attacking football, and with Nikolics linking up well with Alves, the Vidi front two were causing real problems for the Papa defence. The winner came in the 82nd minute, with Mitrovics sending over a wonderful long ball into the path of Nikolics, who looked up, before lobbing keeper Szucs to make it 3.2. The win was a welcome three points for Videoton, who now look forward to next Sunday's home match with Ujpest. The victory also means that Videoton are now fifth with twenty three points. Hopefully, they can now put together a good run of wins to close the autumn season very much still in with a chance to finish the season in glory. 

Author: David Rechnitzer

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