Békéscsaba Előre 1912 – Budapest Honvéd FC 1–1 (1–1)
Kórház utcai stadion, 1460 spectators
Referee: Tamás Sipos (Zoltán Horváth, Dániel Szalai)
Békéscsaba: Uram – Fazekas L., Albert, Csató M. (Szabó B., at half-time) – Gyenti (Maronyai, 87.), Hodonicki, Pintér N. (Sármány, 65.), Hursán, Mikló –Czékus (Vólent 87.), Szatmári I. (Zádori, 74.) Head coach: Sándor Csató.
Honvéd: Tujvel – Pauljevic, Kulbachuk, Szabó T. – Benczenleitner, Csilus, Kesztyűs B. (Sigér, 67.), Hangya, – Lőrinczy (Pekár, 44.) – Medgyes (Ihrig-Farkas, 84.), Simon B. (Keresztes, 67.) Head coach: Zsolt Laczkó.
Goalscorers: Pintér N. (26.), Simon B. (10.)
Sent off: Kulbachuk (40.)
We had our first chance to score as early as the fourth minute: Simon shot from a tight angle on the right near the byline and the ball went out for a corner off the post. After the corner Lőrinczy aimed for goal from 17 metres, but the ball flew over the top-right corner. In the 10th minute Simon again found himself in a position inside the penalty area, but his shot was blocked. The move was not over, however, as Hangya released Benczenleitner down the left, he crossed in time and Simon turned the ball past Uram into the right corner from three metres (0-1). Two minutes later Lőrinczy shot from a 20-metre free kick, curling the ball towards the bottom-right corner, but Uram saved. The next Kispest chance again fell to Simon, who turned to face goal near the penalty spot, but his effort ended up in Uram's hands.
The home equaliser came out of nowhere in the 25th minute: Albert released Pintér from his own half, and Pintér used the inside of his right foot to lob the ball over Tujvel from 15 metres (1-1). We could have responded immediately, as Benczenleitner tried his luck from outside the box directly in front of goal, but Uram tipped the shot onto the crossbar. The hosts answered woodwork with woodwork: after a free kick from the left, Fazekas arrived at the far post and hit the bar. In the 40th minute our team were reduced to ten men. Czékus tried to break forward under pressure from several defenders, Kulbachuk brought him down and referee Tamás Sipos showed a red card for the challenge. Szatmári took the resulting free kick from a good position straight into Tujvel's hands. Two minutes later the hosts launched a dangerous counter-attack, Benczenleitner blocked Pintér's first clear chance, and the home forward fired the rebound over.
We still had a few smaller opportunities towards the end of the half, but the teams went into the second half level.
In the 52nd minute Szatmári shot from 20 metres and Tujvel stretched full-length to push the Békéscsaba effort away with his right hand. Ten minutes later Medgyes lifted the ball over Hodonicki and created a chance for himself between two Békéscsaba defenders, but Uram saved the shot with his foot. In the 70th minute the hosts missed a huge chance when Hodonicki's lofted ball deflected off Benczenleitner, who was trying to clear, into the path of Sármány arriving in the middle, but the Békéscsaba forward shot centimetres wide. In the 89th minute the hosts hit the woodwork again from Maronyai's header, so the score remained unchanged throughout the second 45 minutes.
Our team will host Szeged in the league in a week's time, with Paks visiting us in the Hungarian Cup three days earlier.
