The Polish team won the friendly 5-2.
Vidi were invited to a gala match on Friday evening - Polish team RKS Rakow Częstochowa hosted our team in their renovated stadium. The fans of the two red and blue clubs have long enjoyed a good relationship, so it was high time to celebrate the 100th birthday of the Polish club.
Vidi were welcomed with great affection in the city known for the Black Madonna, and before the kick-off the management of the two clubs exchanged gifts of various relics, some of which will certainly be on display in the Vidi Museum at the MOL Arena Sósto. Naturally, there were also many Hungarian fans in the stands, with RBD cheering behind the goal alongside their Polish counterparts.
Turning to the match, manager Imre Szabics and his staff were not in an easy position when they were putting together the squad, as besides the national team players, injuries also made their job difficult, as our sporting director István Sallói talked about in more detail on the morning of the match. Our head coach sent out the eleven of Kovács - Kojnok, Lüftner, Dinnyés, Heister - Dárdai, Alef, Kovács István, Jallow - Csoboth, Zivzivadze, with Gundel-Takács Bence, Nyári Patrik, Menyhárt Zsombor, Tóth Tamás Vid and Horváth Barnabás on the bench.
The match started at 19:21 in honour of RKS, being founded in 1921, before the home team welcomed Piotr Malinowski, who led the second team, and dedicated a special song to him in Częstochowa. The match didn't start in the best way for our team, in the second minute a right-wing cross connected with Dinnyés' foot and settled in the net (1-0). Four minutes later, Lüftner headed dangerously wide from a corner kick, but failed to find the net. After that, keeper Kovács was alert twice, and goalkeeper Kovacevic made a great save from Dárdai's long-range free-kick in the 18th minute. We equalised in the 20th minute! Zivzivadze won a ball in the opponent's half and unselfishly played it to Dárdai, who scored a goal from a sharp angle from 11 meters (1-1).
Nine minutes later, Guedes just failed to meet a powerful ball into the middle of the box by inches. In the 35th minute, Zivzivadze caused trouble for Kovacevic with an awkward bouncing ball from 18 yards out, who made his second save, and a minute later Kovács made a more confident first save in a similar situation. In the 37th minute, however, our goalkeeper was helpless, Ivan Lopez controlled the ball with his chest and stuck a powerful shot into the bottom right corner from 19 yards (2-1). Two minutes later, Vieira received a good cross inside our penalty area and from 12 yards out, he smashed the ball under the bar with great power (3-1). Another two minutes went by and we were only a goal down again, Kojnok put the ball in behind the defenders and Zivzivadze shot into the short corner from 12 metres after a cross (3-2).
Before the end of the half, the home team had a free kick 21 metres from the goal, Rundic stood behind the ball and struck the bar with great power. But the half was not over yet, after an RKS corner, team captain Niewulis slid a shot into the net from the near post (4-2).
At the break Imre Szabics made no changes, while opposite number Marek Papszun changed seven. The half started with a chance for the Polish side, Dániel Kovács saved a shot by substitute Gwilia. Ten minutes later, Jallow's 20-metre low shot crashed past the right post. In the 65th minute, the home side increased their lead, Cebula could not be tackled inside the penalty area and fired a powerful shot from 11 metres into the bottom right corner (5-2). In the 70th minute there was a bit of chaos in front of Raków's goal, Heister's cross bounced off several feet and then hit the post and finally Raków's players cleared the danger. Three minutes later, Dániel Kovács dealt with Arak's close-range shot.
Twelve minutes before the end, a left-sided corner was followed by a header from Petrasek, who went close from two metres, but ended up going over the bar, and a minute later Arak shot wide again, but Kovács saved with his foot. In the 83rd minute, our goalkeeper had his work cut out again, as Tudor's 17-yard effort was saved. A minute before the end and a right-wing cross bounced off the feet of Heister, who was trying to clear, and Kovács made a great save to clear the ball from under the crossbar. There were no other interesting events in the remaining minutes, Raków won by three goals in Friday night's encounter.
Author: David Rechnitzer