Six goals are shared in pre-season friendly draw

There were six goals in an exciting second half against Romanian side FC Oțelul Galați.

Videoton FC played out the latest of their pre-season friendly games in Spain on Tuesday afternoon. They were up against FC Oțelul Galați, who are currently in 14th place in the Romanian first division. Galati's manager is German Ewald Lienen, who in his playing career enjoyed spells at Bielefeld, Borussia Mönchengladbach and Duisburg. He has also managed several clubs in Germany, which include Hansa Roctock, 1. FC Köln, Hannover, 1860 München, while also sitting in the dugout of AEK Athens for the 2012/2013 season.

The first half saw both teams trying to gain the upperhand, with Vidi having more possession, although the first real goalscoring chance came from the Romanian side. Astafei and Giurgiu linked up nicely in the 19th minute on the left hand side, with the latter player sending in a high ball towards goal, which was met by Astafei, but his shot went wide of the post. Gyurcso was brought down in the 31st minute around 18 meters from the opposition goal. Gyurcso picked himself up and took the freekick, which required a great save from the keeper. Both sides continued to send balls into the middle, but those were easily dealt with by both sets of defenders. A close range shot from Zé Luis towards the end of the first half, deflected off a defender, which ended up going just inches wide of the Galati post.

José Gomes once again changed virtually his entire side at the half time break, with only Gyorgy Sandor and Roland Juhasz running out for the second half. The breakthrough arrived in the 52nd minute with Bajenaru Liviu putting Galati ahead following a quick move (0-1). Vidi could have levelled ten minutes later, with Lupeta playing himself through on the right, before nicely cutting the ball back for Nikolics, whose shot went over the bar.

Tujvel came out to clear the danger after 75 minutes, but ended up losing the ball, with Sirghi curling the ball into the empty net to make it 0-2. Vidi did not give up and came back in to the match with two goals in three minutes. 

The first arrived after 80 minutes when Kovacs fed Nikolics with a nice ball, and the striker made no mistake to make it (1-2). Szolnoki then sent a high ball in towards the direction of Niko a few minutes later, and that resulted in the Vidi forward taking advantage from a mistake by the Romanian defender to level the score. Galati boss Ewald Lienen furiously contested the goal claiming offside, but the match official gave Nikolics the goal.

Vidi forward Nikolics has began pre-season in hot form having scored four goals in four games. Lupeta attempted a sliding tackle inside his own box, which was judged to be unfair on the Romanian forward. The referee pointed to the penalty spot, which Viniciu confidently converted to make it 2-3. However, Vidi had other ideas in injury time. Alvarez dribbled his way in from the right, before hitting a powerful shot with his left foot that found its way into the net to make it 3-3.

The final result was a fair one based on the overall match, although despite Galati twice leading, they found a Vidi side that were able to come back both times. José Gomes will take his side out on Wednesday morning for their final training session, before a four day break and rest for the team. The squad will next meet up on Monday morning at Felcsut. 

Author: David Rechnitzer

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