Our men’s football team, the Hungarian Cup winners, played its first home game of the 2026–2027 season on Thursday evening: the opponent was FK Vojvodina in the second leg of their first-round UEFA Europa League qualifier. The away match in Novi Sad had ended in a 2–1 victory for FTC, so qualification was still up in the air. Fradi head coach Balázs Borbély put his trust in the starting lineup of Dibusz – Osváth, Gómez, Raemaekers, Cadu – Kanikovszki, Keita, Corbu – Zachariassen, Joseph, Yusuf as the starting lineup at Groupama Arena.

First Half

The season kicked off on a sultry summer evening amid a great atmosphere. We had the first chance - after a cross from Cadu, Gómez Mariano headed the ball just wide of the goal from seven meters out. A minute later, Petrovics tested Dénes Dibusz with a long-range shot, but our goalkeeper made a spectacular save. A major turning point came in the 9th minute, when Kornél Szűcs, playing for the visiting team, brought down Lenny Joseph as the last man, giving us a man advantage.

Shortly after, following a cross from Yusuf, Máriusz Corbu had a forgettable shot on goal, and then in the 22nd minute, we had two chances in a single attack: first, Gavriel Kanikovszki took a shot, then Lenny Joseph headed toward the goal, with the latter resulting in a corner kick. However, it wasn’t this sequence that gave us the lead, but rather the series of events in the 27th minute: Attila Osváth passed to Kristoffer Zachariassen, and the Norwegian set up Joseph, who was making a run through the middle: Lenny Joseph made no mistake, slotting the ball into the net from inside the box to give Ferencváros a 1-0 lead. This brought the aggregate score to 3-1 in our favor.

After our opening goal, the already fantastic atmosphere soon grew even more electric, as we managed to double our lead in the 34th minute: Cadu broke into the penalty area, then, after a feint, passed to Zachariassen, who slotted the ball into the net from about three meters out. We were leading 2-0 in the match and 4-1 on aggregate!

In the remaining time before halftime, Joseph hit the crossbar, but the score didn’t change, and we went into the break with a two-goal lead.

Second Half

Neither coach made any substitutions between halves. Fradi controlled possession early on and had some chances, but the opponent also threatened: in the 55th minute, following a sliding tackle by Attila Osváth, the ball fell to Randjelovics, who shot just wide of the goal from close range. Shortly afterward, Dibusz was forced to make a save. The first substitutions came at the end of the first hour, with Yusuf and Kanikovszki coming off for Ferencváros and Elton Acolatse and Zsombor Gruber coming on in their place. Gruber Zsombor, in fact, made a brilliant debut, scoring from inside the penalty area after a dribble following a ball recovery. With Gruber Zsombor’s goal, we led 3–0, and 5–1 on aggregate.

Since qualification had already been secured by this point, Balázs Borbély had the opportunity to give a chance to the young defender, 23-year-old Olivér Nagy, who came on for Attila Osváth.

The crowd was already celebrating in the final minutes, and with good reason: Ferencváros advanced to the second round of the Europa League qualifiers with a confident 3-0 victory, securing a two-leg win with a 5-1 aggregate score.

Our team will face Dutch side Twente in the next round of qualifying, and the second-round series kicks off next week: we’ll play the first leg in the Netherlands on July 23, and then host the Dutch side at Groupama Arena on July 30.