After eliminating Górnik Zabrze to advance to the Europa League qualifying playoffs - - where we will face Trabzonspor on August 20—our men’s soccer team, 36-time Hungarian champions, took the field in Zalaegerszeg for their third league match of the season in the OTP Bank League.

Head coach Balázs Borbély gave Toon Raemaekers, Bamidele Yusuf, and Callum O’Dowda a rest from the “EL squad” this time, so Ádám Nagy made his first start since his return, and young Zétény Varga also made his first league start.

Accordingly, our starting lineup was as follows:

Dibusz – Osváth, Gómez, Zohoré, Cadu – Á. Nagy, Kanikovszki, Corbu – Z. Varga, Joseph, Zachariassen.

After two matches, our team had one point in the standings, so we went into the game with the sole goal of securing our first victory of the league season.

First Half
The home team started the match more aggressively, but after five minutes we took control, and Cadu had our first shot on goal in the eighth minute. In the 13th minute, after two nice moves, Zétény Varga had a shot from 12 meters, and then Bence Gundel-Takács had to dive to stop a curling shot by Attila Osváth from 16 meters.

There was a chance in front of our goal as well: in the 15th minute, Calderon’s lob sailed just over the crossbar.

However, neither team was able to create a truly dangerous opportunity until the 38th minute. Then Cadu took a free kick from about 25 meters out on the right, near the sideline, and Máriusz Corbu headed the ball, which arced toward the far post, with pinpoint accuracy into the empty corner of the home team’s goal (1-0)!

In the 41st minute, Dibusz also made his presence felt: Danilo Krevszun received a great pass and found himself one-on-one with our goalkeeper at the edge of the box, but he was unable to slot the ball past him. It was a tremendous save!

Second Half
The half dragged on for quite some time without any serious scoring chances; both teams attempted shots, but neither goalkeeper was kept particularly busy. In the 62nd minute, Zétény Varga received a perfect through ball from Lenny Joseph, but the young forward took too long to control the ball and couldn’t slot it past the Zalaegerszeg goalkeeper.

Balázs Borbély made a substitution in that very same minute: O’Dowda and Yusuf came on for Kanikovszki and Varga. In the next minute, we were awarded a corner; although Zohoré’s header missed the goal,
VAR spotted that the ball had deflected off Bence Kiss’s forearm. After a brief video review, referee Csonka awarded the penalty.
Gundel-Takács made a save on Máriusz Corbu’s not-so-great shot, directing it to the lower left corner.

The game picked up in the final quarter-hour, with chances arising in front of both goals. In fact, the ball found the back of the home team’s net in the 80th minute. But once again, VAR intervened… Zachariassen, who had moved toward Cadu’s cross, was ruled offside, so Fradi’s 1-0 lead stood.

Most importantly, however, we won the match thanks to Máriusz Corbu’s goal and secured our first victory of the season!

Our players won’t have much time to rest, as the team is already heading to Trabzon on Wednesday, where they’ll face Trabzonspor in the first leg of the UEFA Europa League qualifying play-offs at 7:00 p.m. Hungarian time.