Thirty-five times Hungarian men's football champions, Ferencváros have started the European Cup season in the Champions League qualifying round again this year, thanks to another league title. Thanks to the success of the last few years, our team joined the second qualifying round, where they encountered Welsh champions The New Saints. In our first match this season, head coach Pascal Jansen nominated the starting line-up of Dibusz - Makreckis, Cissé, Raul Gustavo, Ramírez - Rommens, Maiga - Traoré, Zachariassen, Marquinhos - Pesics, allowing two new signings to make their debuts at the Groupama Arena. Before the kick-off, our club president Gábor Kubatov awarded Marquinhos, the best player of the month for May.

First half

The opening kick-off was ours and from the first minute our team had the will on the pitch. In the fourth minute, Traoré's dangerous cross was saved by the visitors' defenders and Pesic's header into the centre was cleared. Four minutes later, Marquinhos broke down the right flank and it was only luck that his effort was not saved.
In the 11th minute Traoré centred again, but Pesics' nod was over the top of the goal.

In the 15th minute, our Mali international appeared in a different role, heading into the Welsh net from the left corner of the five-meter box (1-0). Seven minutes later, our winger struck again, Raul Gustavo's cross was headed back by Pesic and the ball was played to Traoré, who made no mistake (2-0). In the 24th minute, we extended our lead to three goals, Marquinhos crossed from the left wing and Zachariassen passed into the bottom left corner (3-0).

In the 32nd minute, Zachariassen and Marquinhos played together and the latter's curling shot slipped past the left post, but the linesman had already waved the flag for offside. In the dying minutes of the first half, the visitors threatened, Williams' shot rattled off the crossbar.

Second half

The second half of the game got off to a lively start, with Traoré firing over in the 50th minute. However, the goal was not long in coming, and four minutes later our winger headed Ramírez's cross into Roberts' net, reaching a hat trick (4-0).The last time Myrto Uzuni managed a similar feat was against Prishtina in a Champions League qualifier in July 2021. Last season, Barnabas Varga scored three times against Hamrun Spartans in an ECL qualifier. In the 60th minute, Zachariassen was fouled by TNS defenders inside the penalty area and the penalty, awarded rightfully, was scored by Marquinhos (5-0).

In the 71st minute, Marquinhos received a good ball from Raul Gustavo and shot from 18 metres out from midfield, his shot hit the left post. The rebound was headed into the net by Pesic, but our Serbian striker was already on offside. Six minutes later, our head coach made four changes, with Kady coming on for Pesics and making his debut, Marquinhos was replaced by Owusu, Makreckis was replaced by Botka and Maiga was replaced by Tóth Alex. In the 80th minute McManus had a chance but Dibusz saved.

In the 82nd minute Knoester came on for Raul Gustavo. In the dying minutes of the match, Rommens also aimed to score for Wales, but no further goals were achieved and our footballers started the new season with a confident 5-0 win. The return match against The New Saints will take place on Tuesday 30 July at 20.00 CET.