The final friendly match of the Austrian training camp saw Bernard Casoni's Videoton FC beat a strong team from Ukraine.
The final friendly game of the training camp was played in intense warm weather in Austria on Tuesday afternoon. The match was once again played on the Austrian - Slovenian border town of Radenci.
The side from Ukraine, who ended fourth in their respective league, began the friendly the more active. Vidi then gradually came back in to the game and directed play as a result. Patkai won a free kick on 7 minutes. Gyurcso and Mareval stood behind the ball, with the latter curling the ball towards goal, but the defender hacked the ball away with the rebound falling to Simon, whose effort went over the bar. Gyurcso saw his powerful shot go just over the bar. Ivanovski received a good ball after 25 minutes. His neat control ended with a shot from a tight angle, which produced a smart save from the Croatian keeper in the Ukraine goal.
Another two minutes passed when Gyurcso curled a good ball in from a free kick towards the far post. Roland Juhasz connected with the ball and it went just wide. Luhansk then scored a goal against the run of play. Budkivskyi went down the right with the ball, before shooting at goal from the edge of the area. That brought a good save out of Danilovics, but the rebound fell to Opanasenko who made no mistake to find the back of the net. (1-0). The response and equalizing goal came quickly. A good move involving Oliveira and Ivanovski ended with the Macedonian striker ending the move with a goal to make it 1-1. Vidi remained on the attack following that goal. Szolnoki sent a high ball in on 37 minutes, which fell to Oliveira at the far post, and his shot from a tight angle went just wide. The final moment of the first half saw Danilovics save well from a long distance free kick.
Fejes and Feczesin came on at half time in place of Mareval and Ivanovski. Vidi started the second half on the front foot. A lovely ball in from the left wing by Szolnoki ended with Patkai heading at goal from close range. A good save from the keeper denied the midfielder as he tipped the ball over the bar. There were several changes on the hour mark. Patkai and Danilovics played the entire 90 minutes. Bernard Casoni went for the following line-up as the game progressed: Danilovics - Heffler, Lang, Luijckx, Fejes - Sejben, Pátkai, Koltai, Kovács - Feczesin, Havasi.
Vidi went in to the lead after 72 minutes. A neat move was capped off with a very good Kovacs shot from 9 meters to make it 1-2. The Ukrainian team then had a free kick from a dangerous position. However, the shot ended up in the defensive wall and the danger went. The opponents went very close to scoring on 88 minutes. Uros Stojnov saw his effort go wide of the post from 14 meters out.
The next key game for Vidi will be the Super Cup final on the 5th July against FTC at the Sostoi stadium.
Author: David Rechnitzer