After beating Videoton FC Fehérvár and drawing at Budafok, another test awaited our team on Wednesday. This time, however, it was not in the Merkantil Bank Liga: we hosted NB III side ESMTK at the Bozsik Aréna in the Hungarian Cup. In the third round of the competition we first eliminated Móri SE, then on a memorable night knocked out Debreceni VSC after extra time, while our opponents were preparing for their fifth match in the cup. Interestingly, Liza had played all four of their previous cup ties away from home and, despite facing teams including Szolnoki MÁV and Kozármisleny, had yet to concede a goal in the competition – while sitting second behind Monor in the NB III South-East group.
Tamás Feczkó naturally made major changes to his starting line-up, with only Branko Pauljevic, Alex Szabó and Kevin Kántor retained from the XI that began at Budafok. Dominik Csontos, who had missed the league game through suspension, also returned. However, our head coach still had to do without Kevin Varga and Ádám Gyurcsó because of injury and István Pekár due to illness. In the opening ten minutes there was one shot at each end, with Dominik Csontos and Bence Soós testing the waters, although neither Bencze nor Tujvel had to intervene. It quickly became clear, however, that we would have most of the ball while the visitors were primarily set up to counter. In the 15th minute the adventurous Csontos aimed for the bottom-left corner, but Bencze was in position. In the 21st minute Bence Varga delivered an excellent cross, but Zuigeber, arriving through the middle like an express train, headed wide. Two minutes later Zuigeber dribbled on the right and tried to curl one towards the far corner, but Bencze saved at full stretch. In the 27th minute Pinte carried the ball forward nicely from halfway before firing from 20 metres, but Bencze produced a superb save to keep out the shot heading under the crossbar. In the 34th minute Schildkraut shot, and Dúzs held the central effort. Pinte went close in the 42nd minute, but his attempt missed the target. Tamás Feczkó made a change at half-time, replacing Gáspár with Baki, a decision that later had a major impact on the result. In the 60th minute Zuigeber released the lightning-fast Pinte down the left on the edge of offside, and he crossed at the perfect moment for Baki, who had arrived through the middle and headed in from close range (1–0). In the 72nd minute Alex Szabó put Pinte in a great position, but his shot hit the side-netting. In the 80th minute Kállai curled an effort towards the top of the net from the centre, and Bencze stretched fully to save. The coup de grâce came in the 87th minute: after a truly brilliant solo run, Hangya laid the ball off for Zoltán Medgyes, who ruthlessly blasted it under the crossbar (2–0).
Our next Hungarian Cup match will be on March 4, when we face the winner of the Paks–DVTK tie. We do not have to wait long for our next game either: on Sunday from 17:00 we host Szentlőrinc in the 18th round of the Merkantil Bank Liga.
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: 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 the win, but also with good football and lots of chances. In the first half we had the opportunities to decide the game, 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 then we had even more opportunities. We are happy to have progressed and that our youngsters also got on the pitch. We handed a debut to Teó Balázs, while Dávid Gáspár made his first senior start, so that was encouraging.
Zoltán Turi:
Congratulations to Honvéd on progressing; based on the overall picture, you deserved to go through. There were periods of the match when we were equal partners, and in the first half we even had two or three serious opportunities. In the final 20 minutes we had to make forced substitutions, and I changed the shape of the team a little, which did not work at all. I think perhaps the match was decided by the first goal.
Match highlights:
