Robbie Keane was preparing for his first league success with the defending Hungarian champions, who were under pressure to win against Fehérvár FC in the final match of the 21st round of the OTP Bank Liga, as Puskás Akadémia and Paks both picked up three points on Saturday, the former beating Kecskemét and the latter DVSC at home.

Our head coach told FradiMédia before the match that he expects a more intense and aggressive game from his team. He also stressed that after the UEFA Europa League tie in midweek, it's good to have the next match so soon, so there's a chance to improve immediately. With this in mind, our Irish head coach has sent out a starting line-up of Gróf - Makreckis, Gartenmann, Cissé, Ramírez - Tóth, Júlio Romao, Abu Fani - Traoré, Varga B., Kehinde.

First half

It was a great start for Ferencváros, Abu Fani-Varga-Abu Fani had the ball on the path, and our Israeli international easily passed the ball into the goal, and we took the lead in the second minute (0-1)! After a great start we kept the rhythm going, so much so that four minutes later Tóth Alex chose to pass instead of shoot, and Makreckis thanked him well, firing a shot into the lower wide corner(0-2). It could have been a quick reply from Fehérvár, but Cissé cleared Simut's shot from the goal line.

We were constantly attacking the Fehérvár goal, first Traoré's left-footed shot was pushed away by Nagy, and moments later the home goalkeeper had to side-foot Varga's attempt from the bottom corner. In the 34th minute, another Malian winger was on the end of a chance, but Nagy saved again, and Abu Fani then teased Kehinde with a great pass, but the Fehervár side's keeper was able to save.

Towards the end of the half, the home side created two big chances, but first Gróf saved and then Pető's shot avoided the goal. Fradi could have scored at the end of the period, but no further goals were scored and the teams went into the break with a 2-0 away advantage.

Second half

Fehérvár made three substitutions at the break: Melnyik, Simut and Holender did not continue, Katona, Milicsevic and Saponjic came on.

As in the first half, the second half started with Abu Fani, but his ball was saved by Nagy, and a minute later Varga's header was cleared. In the 56th minute, Fehérvár had a penalty and Bálint Szabó calmly headed into the net (1-2). In the 58th minute, Varga was in position after a Fradi corner, but his header and then his cross were blocked by the home defence.

In the 75th minute, Serafimov received his second yellow card from Mihály Káprály, so we had a man advantage for the rest of the match. In the 78th minute, Kalmar fouled one of ours in the area of his own penalty area and we had a promising free kick, but Ben Romdhane's attempt was cleared off the line. 

In the 85th minute, after a minor scramble in front of goal, Cissé passed to Ben Romdhane and the Tunisian midfielder shot confidently into the goal (1-3)!

We made some changes in the final minutes, with Barnabas Varga being replaced by Pesics and Adama Traore by Champions League winner Naby Keita, who was making his first appearance for Ferencváros. He quickly showed what he was capable of as he launched Pesics in the last minute of normal time, but he missed the target.

Our men's football team won 3-1 away to Fehérvár FC, dropping back to second place in the table, and Robbie Keane got his first league win as FTC head coach.

Our football team will next play ETO FC Győr in the 5th round of the MOL Hungarian Cup on Thursday 27 February at 20.00, while in the championship, they will face ETO FC Győr a week later, on 2 March at 18.00.