Our defending Hungarian champions and cup winners hosted MOL Fehérvár in the 3rd round of the OTP Bank League at the Groupama Arena. Our head coach Stanislav Cherchesov sent the eleven of Dibusz - Pászka, Thelander, Knoester, Civic - Besic, Vécsei - Auzqui, Mercier, Traoré - R. Mmaee to battle.

First half

We had to wait until the sixth minute for the first situation of the encounter, when Petrjak slipped the ball in from a free kick on the right, but it changed direction on one of our defenders, resulting in a Fehérvár corner. The corner kick was easily cleared by our defence, and after a quick counter-attack Traoré tried a sharp angle, but Kovács saved the attempt.

In the 13th minute, we led a great counterattack from our own box, after Vécsei's dreamy clearance Ryan Mmaee was on target, Kovács could save, while a few seconds later Vécsei hit the post, but then Auzqui made no mistake from close range (1-0). In the 19th minute, Loic Nego tried to score from outside the penalty area after a loose ball, but Dibusz easily saved the shot from the centre.

In the 25th minute Thelander was substituted by Kovacevic due to injury. Two minutes later, Nego shot into the middle, Pászka brilliantly beat Kodró in the middle and made a great save. Ten minutes before the end of the first half, Traoré ran down Fiola and passed to Mercier, who dribbled past his defender, but his shot was blocked.

MOL Fehérvár also needed to make a change, with Kodro replaced by Zivzivadze. Three minutes later, Traoré jumped out on the right and shot inside the penalty area, but Kovács saved the rebound and Mercier slotted the ball into the net (2-0). While everyone was already happy with the 2-0 half-time score, Auzqui found the ball, passed it to Mercier, who spotted Traoré on the left and the Malian international shot to the long side of the goal (3-0).

It was the last move of the first half and we went into the break with a 3-0 lead.

Second half

Petrjak, Bumba and Heister stayed in the dressing room and were replaced by Pokorny, Bamgboye and Ant.

We had to wait four minutes for the first chance of the second half, but Zivzivadze's shot was off target. After ten minutes of play, Fiola would have launched Dardai, but the visiting defender's ball was long and fell to Dibusz. In the 58th minute, two substitutions were made: Mercier and Ryan Mmaee were replaced by Marquinhos and Boli.

With half an hour to go we made two more changes, with Wingo and Tokmac replacing Civic and Auzqui. Despite the three-goal lead, we went forward unchallenged and the substitutes gave the team a new pace. In the 73rd minute, Marquinhos was teed up in the box by Traore, who tried to cheat his way inside the box but the away defence was alert.

In the 81st minute, Boli cut inside and rolled in a right-wing shot, but the Ivorian striker's shot missed the MOL Fehérvár goal, and moments later he shot left-footed into the middle of the box, but there was no taker in the middle. In the final minute of extra time, Vécsei passed to Marquinhos, who centred from the baseline, and Boli came through the middle to put the icing on the cake (4-0).

Ferencváros showed confidence and great play, with great positional play and goals from Auzqui, Mercier, Traoré and Boli to secure a 4-0 win at home to rivals MOL Fehérvár.

Our men's football team will next take on Irish side Shamrock Rovers in the UEFA Europa League play-off first leg at Groupama Arena on Thursday 18 August at 18.30.