Whatever the outcome of the match, it is certain that tonight in Cologne our team did something that will write itself into the history books of Michael Boris' Vidi.
On Thursday night our team played at the home of Bundesliga 1. FC Köln in front of 44.000 spectators in the ECL play-off. Head coach Michael Boris named our newest signing, Danish Kasper Larsen, in the starting line-up and sent Vidi out with the following side: Kovács - Nego, Kasper, Stopira, Shabanov, Hangya - Funsho, Pinto, Fiola, Dárdai - Zivzivadze.
The match started in a sensational atmosphere, the stadium was completely full, with about 250-300 fans from Székesfehérvár. The first few minutes were dominated by the home side, and in the 14th minute this dominance turned into a goal: Florian Dietz raced onto the ball, Shabanov's sliding tackle failed, allowing the home striker to drive the ball into our goal alone and not miss the target (1-0).
A good five minutes later we had a man advantage, Dárdai broke towards goal alone, Chabot kicked him and the Portuguese referee flashed the red card without thinking! The free kick was awarded to Dárdai from 22 metres out, but the ball got stuck in the wall. In the 31st minute Funsho had a great chance, but he missed the target from 13 metres. Just half a minute and the biggest goal of the game, Nego played in a perfect cross from the right wing and Zivzivadze headed the ball into the top corner of the net (1-1). Budu is in superb form, his sixth goal in his fifth international match for the Georgian side this season. He has scored at least once in every match in the ECL so far.
In the 40th minute, Zivzivadze passed to Dardai, who slotted the ball into the short top corner from a sharp angle from 7 metres - a huge goal, rarely seen at international level, after which the Cologne stadium was silent, except for a handful of Fehervar fans who cheered their team on (1-2).
In the second half, the home team attacked with everything on the line and we defended with great discipline, sometimes with ten players inside our box. Cologne's corners were extremely dangerous, and in the 60th minute Hector headed inches wide from a corner kick. In the 70th minute, Dániel Kovács made the save of the match, as Maina's close range shot was pushed onto the post by our goalkeeper - a save surely the best seen in Europe today.
In the last minutes our goal was no longer in danger, the only noteworthy incident was that two Cologne fans ran onto the pitch before the end of the match, but they were caught by the security and led off the pitch.
In a week's time, our team will host FC Cologne in Székesfehérvár, where we will be 2-1 up going into the return leg.
Szerző: David Rechnitzer