After a 1-0 win against Viktoria Plzen in the UEL match in midweek, our 35-time Hungarian men's football champions were this time in the championship as hosts of Paks. In the match at the Groupama Arena, Robbie Keane started with Gróf - Gartenmann, Cissé, Raul Gustavo, Civic - Tóth A., Júlio Romao - Ben Romdhane, Kehinde, Traoré - Varga B. A special innovation, the Fradi Zone, debuted on the official FTC Youtube channel.

First half

In the second minute Gartenmann crossed the ball into the middle but Osváth saved from Varga. Ten minutes later, after a Traoré cross, Ben Romdhane had a free header from close range, but Szappanos was on the spot. Traoré then had a chance to put the ball into the opposing goal alone but his shot was blocked. In the 24th minute, Alex Tóth's left-footed shot came off the right post and Traoré's attempt was cleared by Szappanos. In the 38th minute, we almost took the lead after a chaotic situation in front of goal, but we were unlucky, after Szappanos hesitated, Traoré headed wide of the post. The teams went into the break 0-0.

Second half

We made one substitution at the break, with Ben Romdhane replaced by Mathues Saldanha, who threaded his way through three men inside the box in the 56th minute, but his cross was blocked. Three substitutions were made after the 60th minute, with Mohammed Abu Fani coming on for Aleksandar Chirkovic and Lenny Joseph replacing Tóth, Traoré and Kehinde. A few minutes later Böde had a chance but Gartenmann made a great save. However, Böde then gave Paks the lead, a cross was cleared out of the defence, our former player was not on offside and he slotted the ball into the left side of the goal (0-1).

Gartenmann could have equalised almost immediately, but our Danish defender's header ended up with Szappanos. Saldanha had a chance in the 70th minute, but Szappanos could not beat him and Varga could not get the rebound into the net. Civic was replaced by Aleksandar Pesic in the 73rd minute. After that, Pesics and Saldanha's shots were saved by Kinyik and Lenzsér respectively, while Csirkovics' attempt was saved by Szappanos. In the 84th minute, Gróf kept our team in the game after Tóth's header, a great save.  
Finally, Osváth hit the crossbar in extra time, and Böde scored again to decide the match (0-2).

We next face Viktoria Plzen next Thursday at 21.00, away in the UEFA Europa League play-off second leg, which we start from a 1-0 lead.