Our men’s soccer team took the field at Groupama Arena on Saturday afternoon with the championship title at stake. Once again, our opponent was ZTE FC, whom we had defeated just a week earlier by a score of 1–0 in extra time in the MOL Hungarian Cup final. Everyone knew that a win alone wouldn’t be enough this time: with one eye and one ear on the Kisvárda–ETO FC match, we all knew that if we scored more points than Győr, we could celebrate our 37th league title together after the final whistle.

This time, Robbie Keane sent the team onto the field with the following lineup:
Dibusz – Raemaekers, Gómez, O’Dowda – Cadu, Rommens, Corbu, Kanikovszki, Nagy B. – Joseph, Gruber

Before the match, our club’s president, Gábor Kubatov, and the CEO of FTC Labdarúgó Zrt., Pál Orosz, presented the iFOREX Europe Player of the Month award to April’s standout, Lenny Joseph, as well as the Dr. Máté Fenyvesi Award to the goalkeeper of our U15 team, national team player Barnabás Rózsa.

First Half

The visitors had the first chance in the 5th minute, but Dénes Dibusz managed to block András Csonka’s shot from the edge of the box with his foot. Shortly after, Joao Victor took a shot from a tight angle, narrowly missing the bottom left corner.

ETO took the lead in Kisvárda in the 10th minute, and the crowd turned up the volume even higher.

Our first real chance came in the 22nd minute, when Corbu curled a shot from 18 meters just over and wide of the top right corner; two minutes later, Gundel-Takács got on the end of Gruber’s cross. In the 26th minute, VAR reviewed a possible penalty, but the video officials determined that the ball did not touch Szendrei’s hand after Kanikovszki’s cross.

ZTE played almost exactly the same way as they did in the cup final; they didn’t force attacks, only looking for opportunities on the counter, while we, understandably, didn’t want to take risks and give the opponent a chance to score by pushing forward. So it was no surprise that the teams went into halftime tied 0-0.

Second Half

In the 49th minute, Gruber took a free kick from a good angle on the left; Cadu headed the ball cleared by the defenders into the middle, and Zachariassen, who had come on at halftime, controlled it and shot on the turn, but Gundel-Takács got to the ball.

Our play became faster, we pushed our press higher up the field, and it paid off: in the 59th minute, we took the lead through Zachariassen! Our Norwegian forward drove the ball almost to the baseline after winning possession; Akpe Victory threw himself in front of his shot, and the ball bounced off him into the ZTE net. (1-0)

We remained on the attack after the goal; in the 65th minute, the visitors’ goalkeeper palmed away Toon Raemaekers’ 20-meter shot aimed at the top left corner, and in the 72nd minute, he pulled the ball down after a header by Gómez. In the 83rd minute, however, even Gundel-Takács couldn’t help: O’Dowda’s cross into the middle was tapped into the net by Yusuf from close range. (2-0)

In the first minute of stoppage time, Zachariassen also found the net, sealing our victory. (3-0).

However, since the score remained unchanged in Kisvárda, ETO won 1-0, so we had to settle for the silver medal this year.