After eliminating Serbia's Vojvodina and Dutch side Twente, our men's football team hosted last season's Polish runners-up, Górnik Zabrze, who dropped out of the UEFA Champions League qualifiers, in the first leg of the third qualifying round of the UEFA Europa League at the Groupama Arena.

Ahead of the match, Balázs Borbély made three changes to the squad: Aleksandar Cirkovic, Ádám Nagy and Kenan Kodro replaced Elton Acolatse, Franko Kovacevic and Endre Botka. Compared to our previous UEFA Europa League qualifiers, there was only one change in the starting eleven, with Jonathan Levi replacing Callum O'Dowda on the left side of midfield.

Our starting line-up was as follows:

Dibusz – Osváth, Raemaekers, Gómez, Cadu – Corbu, Kanichowsky, Levi – Zachariassen, Joseph, Yusuf

First half

From the opening minutes, it was clear that the Polish side, who lined up in a 4-3-3 formation just like us, paid special attention to Lenny Joseph, who had scored four goals in our previous four UEFA Europa League qualifiers. Nevertheless, our Haitian striker missed the target by only inches at the end of the 11th minute.

In the 17th minute, Kristoffer Zachariassen beat his defender on the left edge of the penalty area and squared the ball for Gavriel Kanichowsky, whose right-footed effort narrowly missed the target.

Six minutes later, Osváth delivered a dangerous cross after a lightning-fast attack, but Joseph steered the ball wide from close range. At that point, our opening goal seemed to be in the air, yet in the 30th minute Ika Dimi fired over Dénes Dibusz's goal from 15 metres in a clear-cut opportunity.

We created fewer chances in the latter stages of the first half, while Górnik threatened only once more, through Prekop in the 39th minute.

Second half

We had to wait until the 53rd minute for the first Ferencváros chance of the second half, but Kanichowsky’s effort was comfortably saved by the visitors' goalkeeper, who also dealt with Gómez's header a few minutes later.

At the end of the 63rd minute, Ismaheel curled an effort towards Dibusz's goal from the right side of the penalty area, but the ball sailed just wide. Two minutes later, however, Máriusz Corbu unleashed a shot from the edge of the box that Schulze could not stop. The ball found the bottom-left corner to give us the lead (1-0)!

We entered the final ten minutes with both the advantage and control of the game. In the 83rd minute, Ádám Nagy returned to the pitch in green and white for the first time in ten years.

By keeping possession, we prevented the visitors from taking control, although Peter nearly equalised from a counter-attack in the 89th minute. The Dominican winger's final attempt was comfortably saved by Dibusz in the 92th minute, meaning that we claimed a 1-0 victory in the first leg and will travel to Zabrze with an advantage for the return match on August 13 (kick-off: 19:00).

Before that, however, another home fixture awaits the team: on August 8, we will host Real Madrid at the Groupama Arena, with kick-off at 19:00.