It is no exaggeration to say that our players produced outstanding performances in this season's cup competitions: our first team eliminated top-flight clubs and reached the semi-finals, where they were a whisker away from advancing. Our women's team reached the cup final again after ten years, and on Saturday we were able to cheer on Márton Bogdánfi's side in the final. Our U19s beat ETO 2–0 at home in March through goals from Dávid Gáspár and Erik Kovács, securing their place in the final round. Our academy players performed consistently throughout the season: they were in the title race almost all the way and eventually finished second in the league.
Our opponents kicked off the match, then Dávid Gáspár took a corner and swung the ball into the middle, but Ferencváros goalkeeper Zsombor Gulyka managed to punch it clear. Soon afterwards, Teó Balázs backheeled the ball to Barna Kecskés, who rolled it into the centre, but Gulyka had no difficulty gathering it. Taking advantage of a Ferencváros mistake, Teó Balázs turned towards goal and aimed for the top-left corner, but the green-and-whites' goalkeeper stretched brilliantly and intervened well again. Our opponents took the lead in the 20th minute when Dániel Kuznyecov fired into the bottom-right corner (0–1). Ten minutes later, Kristóf Kovács capitalised on a misplaced pass to double our capital-city rivals' advantage (0–2).
We began the second half two goals down, but hope returned in the 74th minute when the first Kispest goal arrived. Barna Kecskés released Rupert Komlósi, who left the opposing defenders behind before cutting the ball back to Milán Miták, and our 18-year-old calmly rolled it into the net (1–2). The goal gave our play fresh momentum and a few minutes later we came close to equalising as well: Márk Szelényi headed the ball into Komlósi's path near the six-yard box, but his shot flew over the goal.
Everyone in the stands watched the closing stages with bated breath. Our team had only three minutes left to find an equaliser, and although the players fought with all their strength to keep their hopes of gold alive, luck was not on our side this time. First Márk Meskó let fly from the edge of the penalty area, but the ball went just wide of the post, then Péter Milicz drove a powerful effort towards the middle, only for the goalkeeper to make the save.
HUNGARIAN CUP FINAL 2025/26
BUDAPEST HONVÉD FC–FERENCVÁROSI TC 1–2 (0–2)
HONVÉD: Balogh, Balázs, Horváth, Csörgő (Szelényi 62.), Schön (Rankó 74.), Gáspár (Miták 62.), Kovács (Komlósi 70.), Meskó, Kecskés, Milicz, Russnák (Tasi – at half-time) Head coach: Márton Bogdánfi
Ferencvárosi TC: Gulyka, Szokoli (Aratiunov 78.), Berki, Sass, Sukaj, Kovács (Pesti 65.), Czinege (Petró – at half-time), Juhász, Ledniczky (Császár 74.), Kuznyecov, Tóth
Márton Bogdánfi, head coach: “It is difficult to talk only about this match, because it also marks the end of the year for us. Reaching this point is a big achievement, but for some reason, once again, we have not been able to put the finishing touch on it. We definitely need to think about that. The boys have the ability, but several individual mistakes crept into the match that had not been characteristic of us during the season, and an organised Fradi side took advantage of them."
Milán Miták: “It was not easy. We knew anything can happen in a cup final. We knew we were mentally strong, but perhaps by the end of the season we had become tired – I do not know exactly what the reason was. We had our chances, and with a little luck the result could have turned out differently.”
Dávid Gáspár: “I am disappointed with the result because we had a very good year and could have finished it by winning the cup. We have to learn from this, and hopefully we will be able to make use of this experience in senior football as well.”
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