Defending Hungarian champions Ferencváros hosted Borac Banja Luka in the first match of the UEFA Europa League play-off round. At the pre-match press conference, our head coach Pascal Jansen and Israeli international midfielder Mohammed Abu Fani said that the team had done their homework and would do their best to qualify for the UEL main draw.

In this spirit, Pascal Jansen has named the starting line-up of Dibusz - Makreckis, Cissé, Knoester, Ramírez - Abu Fani, Rommens - Ben Romdhane, Zachariassen, Traoré - Varga B.

First half

As expected, the first minutes were spent in the spirit of getting acquainted, but our team quickly took the initiative, trying to break down the opponent's defence on both sides. The first real chance came from Ben Romdhane, who stepped up to make a deep cross, but Manojlovic moved well out of his goal and collected the ball. In the 21st minute, Rommens curled a sharp, powerful effort in front of goal, but the defenders managed to clear it away from Cissé. Moments later, first Traoré and then Zachariassen were fouled, Carolina receiving a yellow card.

In the 26th minute, after a corner from Rommens, Knoester beat his opponent in the air and headed towards goal, but Manojlovic saved bravely. We kept up the momentum and were always in the opponents' penalty area. In the 30th minute, Traoré tricked two players and crossed with a left-footed shot. We didn't have to wait long for another Ferencváros situation, this time Barnabás Varga, who was playing without a mask, burst in but his header was off target. Two minutes before the end of the half Savic played his way through Cisse, shot right but Dibusz saved. At the very end of the one-minute extra time, Varga turned off his defender after an elegant pass and shot left-footed, but the goalkeeper got down to the ball in the bottom right corner and the teams went into the break with 0-0.

Second half

The game remained the same after the turnaround, with the home team trying to break down the visitors' defence, who tried to build on quick counter-attacks after winning the ball. In the 56th minute, Ben Romdhane had a promising chance, shooting from the edge of the box, but Manoljovic was alert and saved the flat attempt. In the 59th minute, three substitutions were made: Varga Barnabas was replaced by Pesic, Ben Romdhane by Misidjan and Abu Fani by Maiga. In the 66th minute, Zachariassen was on target but his shot missed the far post by centimetres. Three minutes later we made another change, with Ramírez replaced by Civic.

As the game approached the end, we took advantage of our last chance to make a substitution, Zachariassen was replaced by Kady. It was soon to be another chance for Ferencváros, Kady's pass was set up by Pesic for Traore, but the Malian winger's shot was blocked. With two minutes of normal time remaining, Kady looked for Pesic, who was on the penalty spot, but his shot was low. In the first minute of the five-minute extra time, Misidjan tried a shot but could not find the net. We had a chance to win the game in the dying seconds, but Kady's header was saved brilliantly by Manojlovic to keep the score 0-0. Our men's football team thus played out a goalless draw at home to Borac Banja Luka in the first leg of the UEFA Europa League play-off round.

The return leg will take place a week later, on Thursday 29 August at 21.00 in Banja Luka.