Two teams with three points each met in Matchday 6 of the OTP Bank Liga. Although we had played one game fewer than our rivals from Zala, we had collected the same number of points and went into the match determined to win. Maurizio Jacobacci made just one change to his starting line-up, bringing Zuigeber back in for Pekár.
In the eighth minute, Zuigeber fired a shot that Gundel-Takács saved, before Maxsuell broke away at the other end and ran at Hadzikic. His attempted lob lacked power, however, and the ball went wide of the left post. In the 13th minute, Adi Alic raced down the left and laid the ball off to Tamás Somogyi, arriving in the second wave. Somogyi aimed for the far corner, but Calderón blocked his effort. In the 18th minute, Csontos delivered a perfectly measured cross and Szamosi, who had timed his run superbly, turned the ball into the left side of the net (1–0). Both coaches made substitutions at half-time. In the 52nd minute, Ádám Somogyi twice came close to doubling our lead; Gundel-Takács produced an excellent save from his first attempt, while the visitors’ goalkeeper did not need to intervene on the second. In the 57th minute, Kállai picked out Alic, but our forward turned and fired over the bar. In the 75th minute, Kállai played a fine cross-field ball to Hangya, who immediately headed it back to Szamosi. Our midfielder met it with a header towards goal, only for Gundel-Takács to pull off a magnificent save.
In the 83rd minute, ZTE were awarded a free kick on the right and Amato rattled the crossbar at the end of an undeniably attractive move. Two minutes later, our new signing Reda Eddaraj tried his luck from distance, his shot going wide of the right post.
The visitors tried to increase the pressure in the closing stages but never posed a serious threat to our goal. We could therefore celebrate a home win at the Bozsik Arena for the first time since 5 May 2023. In the next round, we travel to Győr to face the reigning champions at 8 p.m.
OTP BANK LIGA, MATCHDAY 6, 2026–27
KISPEST–HONVÉD FC–ZTE FC 1–0 (1–0)
Bozsik Arena, 3,285 spectators. Referee: Marcell Derdák (Theodoros Georgiou, Gábor Máyer).
HONVÉD: Hadzikic – Kállai (Pauljevic, 78.), Baki, Boldor (Safronov, 86.), Csontos, Hangya – Zuigeber (Pinte, half-time), Somogyi Á., Somogyi T. (Eddarraj, 68.), Szamosi (P. García, 78.) – Alic. Head coach: Maurizio Jacobacci
ZTE: Gundel-Takács – Csonka (Harangi, 87.), Penalba (Diogo Antonio, 87.), Peraza, Calderón – Kiss, Amato, Krevsun, Teixeira (Richards, half-time) – Maxsuell (Tchicamboud, 87.), Babos (Arthur Henrique, 75.). Head coach: Filipe Celikkaya
GOAL: Szamosi (18).
Maurizio Jacobacci:
“I am very happy with today’s result, especially for the lads, who gave everything to win and pushed themselves to the limit. I believe that by the time we reached today’s match, this team deserved more points than we had managed to collect. As for the game itself, the little bit of luck whose absence I have complained about until now finally came our way. Our opponents had the first big chance inside our penalty area, but our goalkeeper came out well and we did not concede. We then scored a fine goal from a cross from the wing. It was an enormous relief; you could feel the team breathe again. We had another chance early in the second half but failed to take it. What I must acknowledge, though, is that we kept a clean sheet and defended well. We played with five defenders to close down the spaces because we knew our opponents were technically good and had quick players in their squad.”
Filipe Celikkaya:
“We knew this would be a very competitive match for us. I am convinced that if we had taken that chance when Maxsuell was one-on-one with the goalkeeper, we would have seen a completely different game today. But we did not score, and our opponents converted a cross into a goal that we were unable to cancel out. We had a lot of possession but were second best in shots on target. That is particularly frustrating because, for example, we had many more shots against ETO and Ferencváros, but we could not manage that here. We definitely need to improve in this area: we could have gone home with one or even three points, but instead we are returning to Zalaegerszeg empty-handed.”
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