Our team continued its extremely busy schedule from the past and coming weeks with a classic match on Sunday: we took the field for a historic derby at Groupama Arena.  Hosting MTK, head coach Balázs Borbély made no fewer than six changes to the lineup from Thursday’s match against Torreense; after a lengthy absence, Dénes Dibusz returned to goal, so our head coach sent out the following starting lineup this time: Dibusz, Osváth, Raemaekers, Gómez, Cadu – Maiga, Madarász – Zachariassen, Corbu, Birmancsevics – Yusuf.

In addition to league points and prestige, another key factor at stake in this match was that our team had yet to win a Hungarian league game at Üllői út during the fall season. So, in addition to the sensational Europa League run, everyone at Fradi was hoping that the team would break through the barrier, shed the burden, and secure the long-awaited victory. The 231st eternal derby thus took center stage in many respects. The match had an even more special atmosphere because our team took the field in commemorative jerseys honoring the 70th anniversary of the 1956 Revolution and War of Independence. Before the match began, Gábor Kubatov, president of FTC, presented awards in a formal ceremony to this year’s youth award recipients from the FTC Club Foundation—the Albert Foundation—Zsombor Czinege and Milán Nagy.

First Half

The first quarter-hour was marked by the home team’s subdued dominance. For Ferencváros, only a long-range attempt by Zachariassen broke the monotony, while for the visitors, a header that slipped wide of the goal following a free kick did the same. Then, at the end of the first quarter-hour, all hell broke loose—at least from the visitors’ perspective. For Fradi, however, a veritable goal-scoring spree began.

In the 15th minute, Cadu curled the ball in from the left, finding Maiga’s head as he made his run into the box; Maiga nodded it effortlessly under the crossbar (1–0) . Two minutes later, Birmancsevics was the catalyst, playing Yusuf through in the middle of MTK’s half, and our forward, on the run from 12 meters out, fired an unstoppable shot into the far corner from the left (2–0). The clock on the Groupama screen ticked past the 20-minute mark when, following some uncertainty in the blue-and-white defense, Osváth sent a magnificent cross from the right toward Maiga, who had once again made his way to the far post of the box; this time, Maiga beat Bence Varga with a decisive header (3–0)!

The rest of the match became quite one-sided, which was hardly surprising given the shock MTK had just suffered. The visitors were pinned back, and one Fradi chance after another followed. The two most dangerous of these were Raemaekers’ header—which Varga brilliantly scraped off the crossbar—and Corbu’s sharp shot from the right, which whizzed past the right post by mere centimeters. During this phase of the match, MTK was a rare sight outside its own penalty area. And this situation did not change until the end of the first half.

Second Half

It’s no exaggeration to say that everything picked up right where it had left off a good quarter of an hour earlier. Ferencváros dominated overwhelmingly, while MTK was essentially just fighting desperately to survive. True despair set in for Máté Pinezits’s team in the 52nd minute. Birmancsevics tried to slide the ball toward the goal as it approached the penalty spot, but instead of finding the net, the ball struck the hand of a defender who had jumped up. After a brief VAR review, the decision was made: penalty kick. Only Zachariassen was more decisive than the referee, confidently blasting the ball into the net (4–0)!

In what remained a one-sided game, Balázs Borbély finally made a substitution—not, of course, with the intention of changing the course of the match, but presumably with the team’s busy schedule in mind, aiming to give players a rest. Following the substitution, Maiga and Yusuf were replaced by Ádám Nagy and Joseph, respectively. Just under ten minutes later, the score changed as well.

Corbu broke away shortly after crossing the halfway line; then, seeing the MTK defenders hesitate, he decided to take advantage of the situation and, after a 20-meter solo run, slotted the ball into the visitors’ net on the run (5–0).

From that point on, the match turned into a true goal-fest. The only question was whether Fradi would reach half a dozen goals. The visitors’ goal was under threat practically every minute. In the end, Fradi stopped at five, but still made this classic derby memorable with a fantastic goal-scoring display.

With this, our team secured its first home victory of the year!

By all accounts, the team can put an end to its inconsistent form—soaring in the Europa League while struggling in NB I. This confidence-boosting, goal-filled victory certainly indicates that the team’s international momentum has carried over into the domestic league as well!

The action continues on Wednesday at 12:30 p.m. with an away match against Bicske in the Hungarian Cup.