On a special occasion - Hungary’s birthday, Thursday, August 20 - our men’s soccer team played its away UEFA Europa League playoff match against Trabzonspor. The winner of the two-leg playoff will advance to the UEL group stage this fall, while the loser will compete in the UEFA Europa Conference League.

For the first match in Turkey, head coach Balázs Borbély put his trust in the starting lineup of Dibusz – O. Nagy, Gómez, Raemaekers, Cadu – Corbu, Rommens, O’Dowda – Zachariassen, Joseph – Yusuf. We were confident that Philippe Rommens would do something special that evening, as he was celebrating his birthday.

On the other side, the Turks’ latest world-class signing, Mohamed Salah, started the game.
The home fans created an incredible atmosphere at Papara Park; the approximately 40,000 home supporters turned the stadium into a veritable cauldron.

First Half
As early as the second minute, Cadu had to make a great sliding tackle after a cross from Pina; on top of that, the ball rebounded to the home team’s winger, resulting in a goal kick. A few minutes later, Bouchouari took a shot from long range but missed the goal. After that, the new star, Salah, had a clear chance, but Dibusz managed to make the save. Then, in the 17th minute, we scored on our first real chance.

Yusuf skillfully held onto the ball on the right side, then played it through to the unmarked Olivér Nagy, who masterfully curled it into the middle, right onto the head of Kristoffer Zachariassen, who made no mistake (0-1).

The goal clearly rattled the home team a bit, and the more than 40,000 fanatical Turkish fans also fell silent. The game became much more evenly matched. They primarily tried to beat us in the air with crosses, with little success; Balázs Borbély’s game plan worked brilliantly. At the end of the 36th minute, Yusuf made a nice run down the right side, but Onana made a spectacular save on his sharp, low shot. On the other end, Nayir shot wide at the end of a home counterattack. Shortly afterward, Corbu dribbled his way into the box, but his shot went wide; then Yusuf received an excellent pass, but was outnumbered—sandwiched between two defenders, he couldn’t get to the ball against the onrushing Onana.

Second Half

Salah had the first big chance of the second half; this time he managed to get away from Gómez, but his shot missed the goal. Trabzonspor came out with great momentum in the second half, and the Turkish team had several dangerous crosses, but we managed to clear them. In the 55th minute, we escaped what had been the Turks’ best chance of the match so far. This time, Onuachu was completely unmarked and able to head the ball from about five meters out, but it struck the crossbar and luckily bounced off Dibusz’s back, preventing a goal. On the other side, Yusuf won a footrace that started in midfield, then, with his last ounce of strength, played the ball into the middle for Joseph, who, however, was unable to put it in the net.

In the 61st minute, we made our first substitutions: Yusuf and Rommens were replaced by Ádám Nagy and Gavriel Kanikovszki. Five minutes later, Onuachu headed the ball again from a tight angle, but it went wide. Trabzonspor kept pressing, and in the 71st minute, Dibusz had to make a spectacular save to stop Pina’s close-range shot. Trabzonspor continued to ramp up the pressure, so we tried to freshen things up with more substitutions, bringing on Krisztián Lisztes and Attila Osváth to replace Zachariassen and Joseph.

However, no more goals were scored, so our team won 1-0 at Trabzonspor’s home stadium and can look forward to the second leg of the UEL playoff, a home game, with a lead.

The second leg against Trabzonspor will take place on Thursday, August 27, at 8:30 p.m. at Groupama Arena.