After the 1–0 defeat to Slavia Praha, victory was clearly the aim for our U17 side against Genk in Round 2 of the Puskás-Suzuki Cup. The Belgians had drawn with Real Madrid in the previous round, while the Spaniards collected three points with a comfortable 3–0 win over Slavia.
The first half did not start well. Jelle Driesen came very close to opening the scoring twice: first he hit the post in the 5th minute, then nine minutes later missed by only centimetres. His teammate Fady Ouzzami barely needed a chance: his pinpoint effort from around 18 metres found its way past Liziczay into the right corner (0-1).
After that, one of the qualities also highlighted by head coach Márton Bogdánfi really came to the fore: the desire to win and a tremendously strong mentality. At the end of the half Kis Attilaequalised after a fantastic piece of skill (1-1). The break seemed to transform the team. As early as the 34th minute we beat the Belgian goalkeeper again, when after a corner from Péter Milicz Nyers Ádám glanced the ball into the right corner (2-1). We did not stop there, creating chance after chance. Tamás Somogyi and Erik Kovács could both have doubled the lead, and although that did not happen, we collected all three points.
Márton Bogdánfi's team will play current leaders Real Madrid for first place in the group on Sunday from 15:15.
Budapest Honvéd–KRC Genk (Belgian) 2–1 (1–1)
Budapest Honvéd: Liziczay – Ujváry, Horváth Á., Russnák, Milicz – Balázs, Schön (Petrók, at half-time) – Kobela (Kovács E., at half-time), Somogyi (Miták, 45.), Kecskés (Nyers, at half-time) – Kis A. (Tasi, 57.)
Goals: Kis (30.), Nyers (34.), for Genk Ouazzami (21.)
Group standings after 2 rounds: 1. Real Madrid 4 points, 2. Budapest Honvéd 3 (2–2), 3. Slavia Praha 3 (1–3), 4. Genk 1
Márton Bogdánfi, head coach:
“We learned a huge amount from Friday's defeat to Slavia; the staff worked all night on how and what to change. We convinced the boys that we could build on the second half against the Czechs, and we carried on exactly where we left off. We played with a huge desire to win, as a true TEAM. Even though we were behind, I felt we were starting to physically get on top of Genk, and that showed in the second half, when we clearly controlled the match and took advantage of our opponent's mistakes.”
Puskás-Suzuki Cup results:
Day 1
Real Madrid CF–KRC Genk 1–1 (0–1)
Juventus FC–Sporting CP 4–1 (1–0)
Panathinaikosz FC–Puskás Akadémia 1–1 (1–1)
Day 2
Panathinaikosz–Juventus FC 4–2 (2–0)
SK Slavia Praha–Budapest Honvéd FC-MFA 1–0 (1–0)
Puskás Akadémia–Sporting CP 0–2 (0–1)
Day 3
SK Slavia Praha–Real Madrid CF 0–3 (0–2)
Budapest Honvéd FC-MFA–KRC Genk 2–1 (1–1)
Sporting CP–Panathinaikos 1–1 (0–1)
