In our second friendly in Turkey we faced FC Slovacko, who sit bottom of the Czech top flight but have caused unpleasant surprises for several leading teams. Tamás Feczkó thoroughly reshuffled his starting line-up this time, with only Ádám Somogyi remaining from Sunday’s team, while Kevin Varga and Teó Balázs both made their first starts for Honvéd’s first team.
The Czech side also arrived with a strong squad for Tuesday’s friendly. Their starting line-up included the Daníček–Reinberk pair, both regarded as club icons at Slovacko and continuously representing the blue-and-whites since 2010. From the bench came Petržela, who has Champions League experience with Plzeň, 31-cap Czech international Michael Krmenčík, and multiple Slovakia youth international Martin Šviderský, who also spent time in Manchester United’s academy. Slovacko’s only foreign player with experience in Hungary, Žan Medved, was not in the squad.
In the fifth minute Teó Balázs met Bence Varga’s corner in the middle, but the ball ended up with Urban. A little over ten minutes later no one reached Kevin Varga’s cross at the far post, so the ball travelled across the face of goal. The Czechs registered their first shot on target in the 40th minute, Marinelli curling towards the bottom-left corner after taking a touch, but Dúzs got down to save. Two minutes later Blahut raced down the right and his cross again gave Dúzs work to do; Marinelli struck the rebound badly wide. We took the lead at the end of the half: Hetyei elegantly carried the ball through several defenders before brilliantly releasing Kevin Varga, who fired into the far corner when clean through to score his first goal for Kispest (0–1).
After the break the Czechs emerged with a completely different rhythm. In the 50th minute Krmenčík just failed to reach Ndubuysi’s cross in the middle, but the Czechs recovered the ball on the opposite side and created a shot that Pauljevic cleared from the mouth of the goal. Svidersky ended the move with a low shot that flashed just wide of the bottom-right corner. Five minutes later Dúzs pushed Krmenčík’s curling effort behind for a corner, but Slovacko equalised from the set piece, Tetour finding the bottom-left corner from ten metres (1–1). Shortly afterwards Ouanda created a huge chance for Krmenčík arriving centrally. The Czech striker shot first time, but Dúzs stretched to turn it behind for a corner. Honvéd’s first chance of the half came in the 65th minute, when Hetyei headed Kevin Varga’s excellent cross over. Slovacko turned the match around in the 68th minute: Swiderski curled the ball into the middle with his right foot and the advancing Ndefe glanced it into the net under pressure from Kevin Kállai (2–1). With fifteen minutes remaining Teó Balázs pounced on a loose pass, before Kesztyűs spotted the opportunity and lobbed towards Heca’s goal as the keeper raced back. The Czech goalkeeper recovered in time, however, and palmed the ball away from the goal line. There were no further major chances in the closing stages, so Slovacko won 2–1.
In the final match of our training camp in Turkey, we face Kosovo side Prishtina on Thursday from 14:00.
FRIENDLY 2025/26 – WINTER
Belek, Turkey
1. FC SLOVACKO–BUDAPEST HONVÉD FC 2–1 (0–1)
SLOVACKO: Urban – Reinberk, Rundic, Stojcevski, Mulder – Danícek – Blahút, Travník, Havlík, Juroska – Marinelli. Substitutes used: Heca, Ndubuysi, Beran, Tetour, Ouanda, Petrzela, Krmencík, Svidersky, Ndefe, Vasko. Head coach: Roman Skuhravy
HONVÉD: Dúzs – Kállai, Pauljevic, Balázs T., Varga B., Földi – Somogyi, Szamosi (Kesztyűs, 60.) – Pinte (Zuigeber, 60.), Hetyei, Varga K. (Ujváry, 80.). Head coach: Tamás Feczkó
Goals: Tetour (57.), Ndefe (68.), and Varga K. (44.)
