Never change a winning team, as the saying goes, and Tamás Feczkó kept faith with the starting eleven that had worked in the previous two matches. Former cup-winning players of ours also appeared for the opposition: Szabolcs Schindler, making his debut on the Gyirmót bench, won the Hungarian Cup as a player in Kispest in 2007, while Roland Ugrai, named in the starting line-up, did so in 2020.
Marco Rossi, coach of our 2017 championship-winning team, also watched the match at the venue.
Although we registered the first shot through Zoltán Medgyes at the end of the fifth minute, Gyirmót took the lead. Pyschur got past Szabó on the right and Rajmund Horváth arrived in the middle to turn the cross into Tujvel’s net (0–1). Straight from the restart came what has now become the customary equaliser: Bévárdi dribbled inside from the right and floated the ball into the middle, where Kevin Kántor , with his back to goal, produced an acrobatic finish into the bottom-left corner (1–1). Our in-form forward could soon have turned the score around after breaking free of his marker and racing through one-on-one, but his shot went centimetres wide. In the 24th minute we nearly took the lead through an own goal, Hudák misjudging the ball before Rusák saved at the near post. In the 27th minute Kántor produced another flash of quality, this time creating the lead: he flicked Csontos’s corner from the right with his heel to Alex Szabó, who side-footed home from close range (2–1). Our home-grown defender had now scored his second goal of the spring. Seven minutes later Szilveszter Hangya’s shot caused danger in front of the visitors’ goal after taking a deflection off a Gyirmót defender and hitting the side netting. At the end of the half Helembai drove the ball across from the right and Pyschur, falling, directed it goalwards, but Tujvel saved.
We had to wait less than five minutes for the first serious chance of the second half, when Keresztes volleyed wide with his right foot.
Gyirmót tested Tujvel several times with weaker efforts; their most dangerous chance came in the 66th minute when Madarász fired from 18 metres just wide of the left side of the goal. In the closing stages Dominik Csontos had shots from both a free kick and open play, but Rusák saved on both occasions, while in added time Hudák’s header dropped into Tujvel’s hands.
This was our third straight win and the fifth time this spring that we came from behind. Moving up another place, we now sit seventh in the Merkantil Bank Liga table.
We have collected all three points in four consecutive home matches, but on Sunday Tamás Feczkó’s side faces another task away from home against Szentlőrinc, still unbeaten this spring.
MERKANTIL BANK LIGA, ROUND 24
BUDAPEST HONVÉD–GYIRMÓT FC GYŐR 2–1 (2–1)
Budapest, Bozsik Arena, 1,998 spectators. Referee: Tamás Bognár (Péter Kóbor, Balázs Buzás)
BUDAPEST HONVÉD FC: Tujvel – Csonka B. (Baki, 46.), Szabó A., Csontos D., Hangya – Bévárdi, Pekár I. (Csilus T., 75.), Szamosi Á. (Kovács E., 75.) – Keresztes N., Kántor K. (Ihrig-Farkas, 66.), Medgyes Z. (Sigér Á., 75.). Head coach: Tamás Feczkó
GYIRMÓT FC GYŐR: Rusák – Csörgő V. (Hudák M., 86.), Hudák D., Papp M., Helembai (Kovács D., at half-time) – Horváth R., Katona M., Hajdú Á. (Marlen, 76.), Ugrai (Gajdos, 68.) – Pyschur, Madarász M. (Iván A., 68.). Head coach: Szabolcs Schindler
Goals: Kántor (10.), Szabó A. (27.), and Horváth R. (8.).
Tamás Feczkó:
In the first half we played particularly well. After conceding early, we equalised quickly and deservedly turned the game around, although we could have led by more. In the second half, however, we did not keep the ball enough. Our midfielders tired, but there are various MLSZ regulations that we have to comply with. That also contributed to us making substitutions later. Our substitutes gave us stability; Gyirmót did not have many chances, perhaps two opportunities from which they could have scored. I’m not satisfied with our second-half performance and we need to improve in that area.
Match highlights:
