Thirty-five-time Hungarian men's football champions Ferencváros played Tottenham Hotspur of the English Premiere League in the second round of the UEFA Europa League. Pascal Jansen voted for the starting line-up of Dibusz - Gartenmann, Cissé, Gustavo, Ramírez - Abu Fani, Maiga - Traoré, Saldanha, Civic - Varga Barnabás. Matheus Saldanha was also included in the line-up, so the Brazilian striker, who scored a hat-trick goal against Puskás Akadémia, made his first appearance in the starting XI for our team.
First half
Although Tottenham are undoubtedly one of the favourites to win the series, our footballers were not daunted by the task ahead of them and were very dangerous in the first minutes. In the second minute, Abu Fani's shot was blocked by the Londoners and Civic's cross was saved by Sarr. Shortly afterwards, Barnabas Varga shot over the bar and Traoré's effort was saved by Vicario.
Spurs were a bit nervous in the fantastic atmosphere and found themselves after the first ten minutes and created several chances in front of goal, but our defenders kept their heads clear, until in the 12th minute Dibusz showed great bravery after Sarr's attempt. Five minutes later, Barnabás Varga headed into the Tottenham net after a promising attack, but the referee disallowed the goal for a foul. In the 19th minute, Civic set up Saldanha and received the ball back from him, and after his cross, Traoré headed wide of the right post, but the ball was not cleared, and the replay was saved by Vicario. Despite these attacks, in the 23rd minute the visitors took the lead, Sarr scoring (0-1).
The goal broke our team a bit and we had to wait until the 38th minute for our next serious chance. Then Saldanha started on the left wing and passed to Traoré, but our Malian winger missed the target. In the minutes before the break, we tried to build attacks, and once or twice we got into the Spurs' penalty area, but we could not really threaten.
Second half
In the 48th minute, Saldanha challenged Vicario, our Brazilian international aiming for the bottom left, the Tottenham goalkeeper made a brilliant move to poke away the powerful shot. Eleven minutes later, Pascal Jansen decided to change and substituted Ben Romdhane for Civic and Zachariassen for Saldanha. The substitutions brought new energy, first Zachariassen started on the right wing and then Ben Romdhane fought out a corner.
In the 69th minute Gartenmann's cross found Zachariassen, but our Norwegian midfielder nodded over the goal. Two minutes later, Maiga curled a cross towards Barnabas Varga but Vicario was alert. In the 76th minute Gartenmann and Traoré left the pitch, replaced by Makreckis and Kady. Our Brazilian winger immediately threatened, but Vicario was on hand to meet his shot into the bottom left corner. In the 81st minute, Makreckis also aimed for the short corner, but he bombed wide of the goal. Two minutes later, Barnabas Varga centred but Kady headed the ball into Vicario's lap.
Pesic came on for the end, but in the 86th minute Johnson's shot was deflected off the right post (0-2) and the visitors were two up. In extra time, Barnabás Varga scored with a beautiful move (1-2). Nice result but still a defeat from Tottenham.
UEFA Europa League, Main Round, Round 2
FTC-Tottenham (0-1)
Ferencváros Stadion, 20 795 spectators, Ref.: Igor Pajac
FTC: Dibusz - Gartenmann (Makreckis, 76.), Cissé, Gustavo, Ramírez - Abu Fani, (Pesics, 84.) Maiga - Traoré (Kady, 76.), Saldanha (Zachariassen, 59.), Civic (Ben Romdhane, 59.) - Varga B.
Head coach: Pascal Jansen
Tottenham: Vicario - Pedro Porro, Romero, Gray, B. Davies - Sarr (Solanke, 81.), Bissouma, Bergvall (Kulusevski, 64.) - Moore, Lankshear (Maddison, 64.), Werner (Johnson, 64.)
Head coach: Ange Postecoglou
Yellow card: Civic (22.)
Goals: Varga B. (90.), resp. Sarr (23.), Johnson (86.)
Turnovers, nine goals and a red card in the match against Loki, that we lost 5-4.
Ferencváros played a 0-0 draw against Újpest in the 15th round of the championship.
Ferencváros won 4-1 against the Swedish champions Malmö FF in the UEFA Europa League main draw.
Ferencváros played a 3-3 draw against Diósgyőr.
Substitute Tosin Kehinde scored in the 85th minute to decide the match over KTE.
Ferencváros won over Kiev with a double from Barnabás Varga and goals from Zachariassen and Saldanha.
Ferencváros finished 2-2 against Debrecen at home.