The Hungarian giant Ferencváros has returned to the UEFA Champions League series tonight against Barcelona after 25 years again. The Budapest side progressed through four qualification rounds, first against Djurgarden, then through Celtic, Zagreb, and Molde. The draw for the Champions League group stage held two of the best teams for Ferencváros: we are playing against Barcelona, Juventus, and Dynamo Kiev, head coach Rebrov’s previous team.

The international campaign started already with a stop in Barcelona, and our team playing in white was not afraid of the challenge. We created early in the game two great chances: the first resulted in a goal – unfortunately from offside – and from the second Isael hit the bar. If only these would have ended up as goals...

Barcelona is however not by coincidence one of the best teams in Europe: they woke up and showed their individual skills: we played good zone defense but in the 22nd minute Messi dribbled into the penalty area where our defense committed a foul. The penalty was converted to a goal, Dibusz could not reach the shot. Ten minutes later Barcelona extended its lead: Ansu Fati scored a lucky goal. The Spanish attacks continued after half time and the result quickly went up to 3-0. It did not look easy at this point, but then for a while, we managed to turn the match: Pique brought down Tokmac inside the box, he was sent off with a red card and we received a penalty. Kharatin did not miss our chance, scored confidently for Ferencváros. 3-1 against Barcelona. Then, in the following minutes, we were dominating more and it seemed we might be able to close up even more. This, unfortunately, did not happen tonight, the Barcelona defenders showed some individual skills in the last ten minutes and quickly decided the match: substitute Pedri and Dembelé created the final result.

Although Ferencváros lost 5-1 tonight in Camp Nou, the match against Barcelona will be an unforgettable one for all Ferencváros players and supporters.