Although the score was 0–0 at half-time, in the second half we managed to break down the defence of our self-sacrificing visitors. In the 60th minute Ákos Baki headed Patrik Pinte’s pass into the visitors’ net, then three minutes before the end of regulation time, after a superb individual move by Szilveszter Hangya, he laid the ball off to Zoltán Medgyes, who blasted it under the crossbar.
“First of all, congratulations to our opponents and to my own team as well, because we played a very good match. We wanted to reward our supporters not only with a win, but also with good football and lots of chances. Thank you very much for coming out in such numbers on a Wednesday and creating such a fantastic atmosphere in the arena” – Tamás Feczkó said after the match. Our head coach stressed that his team had the opportunities to decide the game in the first half, but poor decisions prevented them from doing so.
“We had the chances in the first half to decide the match, but we made poor decisions: either we failed to hit the target or the visiting goalkeeper made brilliant saves. The tempo really was at NB II level, so it was to be expected that the visitors would tire in the final 20–25 minutes and that we would then have even more opportunities. I would have liked us to score more goals, but in the second half there were already encouraging elements in our play that had been missing before the break.”
The evening brought milestones for our youngsters: Dávid Gáspár, last season’s Puskás Award winner and captain of our second team, started for the first time in the cup, while another academy player, Teó Balázs, made his debut in Honvéd colours. Our head coach had already shown confidence in the 17-year-old during the warm-up matches in Turkey; this time he had the chance to prove himself in his first competitive appearance.
“We are happy to have progressed and also that our youngsters were able to get on the pitch today. We handed a debut to Teó Balázs, while Dávid Gáspár made his first senior start.”
HUNGARIAN CUP, 2025/26, ROUND OF 16
BUDAPEST HONVÉD FC–ESMTK 2–0 (0–0)
Bozsik Aréna, 2,531 spectators. Referee: Márton Rúsz (Gergő Vígh-Tarsonyi, Ákos Berényi).
HONVÉD: Dúzs – Pauljevic, Szabó A., Csontos – Kállai, Gáspár (Baki, – at half-time), Kesztyűs (Balázs, 88.), Varga B. (Hangya, 70.) – Pinte, Kántor (Medgyes, 70.), Zuigeber (Nyers, 78.). Head coach: Tamás Feczkó
ESMTK: Bencze – Soós, Molnár T., Zsemlye, Száhl – D’Urso (Balogh M.), Slezák – Molnár J. (Ladányi G., 61.), Burzi (Desnica, 87.), Molnár R. (Puskás, 87.) – Schildkraut. Head coach: Zoltán Turi
G: Baki (60.), Medgyes (87.).
Tamás Feczkó’s assessment:
