This was our fourth meeting in a short span of time with Celtic, the 56-time Scottish champions. In the summer of 2020, we secured our advancement in a single-leg Champions League qualifier after winning 2-1 in Glasgow thanks to goals from Dávid Sigér and Tokmac Nguen, but the local green-and-whites got their revenge a year later in the Europa League group stage, winning 2-0 at home and 3-2 at the Groupama Arena. Overall, however, our record against Scottish clubs was positive—4 wins and 3 losses—thanks in part to our 2-1 home victory over Rangers in December during the Europa League league phase.

Our team took the field in their black away jerseys and also wore black armbands in memory of Gyula “Bill” Deák, a legendary Fradi blues singer who passed away at the age of 77 on the day of the match. Balázs Borbély—who has fond memories of Celtic from his playing days, having once eliminated the Scots from the Champions League qualifiers with Artmedia Bratislava in a brutal series in which the Slovak team won 5-0 at home, before losing 4-0 at Celtic Park—named the following starting lineup for the match, which our team entered undefeated based on the results of the summer international cup qualifiers:

Á. Varga – O. Nagy, Raemaekers, Gómez, Cadu – Á. Nagy, Corbu, Zachariassen – Yusuf, Bagi, Arzani.

Led by team captain Kristoffer Zachariassen, our team took the field after a day of changeable weather—typical of Scotland, and mostly rainy—to a sold-out crowd, including 273 Fradi fans.

First Half

The song “You’ll Never Walk Alone”—made famous by Liverpool—roared from 60,000 voices in the stands. After the singing, Celtic, playing in green and white, kicked off the match at the whistle of Croatian referee Kolaric and immediately tried to pin our team back against their own goal. By the 3rd minute, the Scots had already taken their third corner kick. The first shot—or something close to it—belonged to Fradi, however; Cadu took a shot from 20 meters, but the ball headed toward the corner flag, from where Zachariassen sent in a cross, only for the defenders to clear it. In the 7th minute, Celtic threatened, with Durán curling a shot just wide of Ádám Varga’s goal. In the 9th minute, Olivér Nagy’s sliding cross landed on top of the home team’s goal. In the 14th minute, Forrest beat Olivér Nagy with a nutmeg, then sprinted to the end line and shot instead of crossing, but Ádám Varga closed down the angle well. In the 18th minute, we launched our best attack of the game so far: Yusuf received a good pass on the right, cut inside after a feint, and played it into the middle; Zachariassen arrived and headed it, but the ball sailed just over the crossbar. In the 20th minute, our opening goal came from a reversed role play! After a pass from Zachariassen, Bamidele Yusuf cut inside and shot with his left foot; the ball took a deflection off Scales and found the bottom right corner, catching goalkeeper Sinisalo off guard (0-1)!

In the 23rd minute, former Celtic player Daniel Arzani aimed for the bottom right corner, but this time the Finnish goalkeeper got down to make the save, deflecting the ball out for a corner. Celtic didn’t like the high press they faced after conceding the goal. The crowd of 60,000 grew quieter. In the 30th minute, another cross came in from the right side for FTC; Raemaekers slid the ball across, but Gómez—who had been nursing a leg injury—failed to connect properly, allowing Sinisalo to make the save. On the other end, Cadu made a big save to deny the onrushing Hassan. In the 32nd minute, half the stadium saw McGregor’s deflected shot and roared, but the ball went wide. Unfortunately, Celtic equalized just before halftime, even though we had been controlling the game in the final minutes: Tierney broke down the left side, and after his cross, Mika Baur found the back of Varga’s net (1–1).

Before halftime, however, we responded with a magnificent goal: Yusuf ran down the right side to the baseline, crossed it into the middle, and Kristoffer Zachariassen slotted it past Sinisalo with the inside of his foot (1-2)! Halftime.

Second Half

At halftime, Balázs Borbély substituted Attila Osváth for Olivér Nagy, and the home team also made a substitution. The second half had barely begun when we saw a goal perhaps even more beautiful than Zaki’s: Daniel Arzani—driven by a desire to prove himself against his former team—dribbled the ball inward from the left past two defenders, then blasted a massive shot into the top left corner (1-3)! Celtic Park fell silent.

More substitutions followed for the home team. In the 66th minute, we made a double substitution, with both goal scorers coming off: Yusuf was replaced by Levi, and Arzani by O’Dowda. In the 69th minute, Nygren tried to curl a shot with his left foot à la Arzani, and the Scottish crowd roared again, but the shot went wide by just a few centimeters. For the final 20 minutes, Lisztes replaced Bagi as our attacking forward.

Ádám Varga also made his mark on the game, punching away a powerful shot from Tounekti.

Shortly after, however, our goalkeeper played a poor pass that put Nygren in a scoring position, and he curled the ball over the gaping net from distance. Some of the home fans gave up in the 75th minute and started heading home. “Where are you going?” boomed from the visitors’ section. The Scots will surely head home sad, while we’ll return to Budapest on Friday with 3 points in the bag!

Final score: Celtic-Ferencváros 1-3!

The next match is on Thursday, October 15, at Groupama Arena against Viktoria Plzen of the Czech Republic.