Women’s Jet-Sol Liga: MTK became domestic champions for the seventh time

MTK Hungária Women have sprung a huge surprise by defeating title-holders Ferencváros Women 1-0 in both legs of their Jet-Sol Liga Hungarian championship final tie to become domestic champions for the seventh time.

Last week’s single-goal victory away at Fradi shocked many who thought there would be no stopping the green-and-whites marching to a third straight league title, especially given that Ferencváros had won the last four encounters between the two sides including an 8-3 victory last month.

MTK took no heed of this though and exploded into life in the first leg of this final tie, creating two chances in the first ten minutes before defending bravely when Ferencváros wrested back the initiative after the first quarter of an hour. A goalless first half was followed by almost total dominance from Fradi in the second, a number of chance going begging and the woodwork being struck in addition to several excellent saves from MTK goalkeeper Réka Szőcs. There would be a twist in the tail of this game though, Lilla Nagy finishing off a late MTK counter-attack by somewhat fortunately lobbing the goalkeeper and seeing her shot deflect of a defender’s neck into an empty net. A stunned Ferencváros couldn’t respond and so went into yesterday’s second leg 1-0 down on aggregate.

The second leg was held a week later in the new Hidegkuti Nándor Stadion but followed very much the same pattern as the first meeting, Ferencväros dominating play while MTK looked to counter whenever possible. Both teams proved dangerous from set-plays, both striking the opposing crossbar in an ultimately goalless first 45 minutes.

It was crucial for Ferencváros to net at least one goal to keep their title dreams alive and they did their utmost to do it in the second period, camping in the MTK half of the pitch for much of it but their inaccuracy in front of goal meant the vital strike was not forthcoming. Instead, MTK caught their opponents with another late sucker-punch, Lilla Turányi meeting a right-wing free-kick and diverting the ball into the net with her back to give her team a priceless two-goal cushion.

Rather than galvanise Fradi into one last rescue bid, the goal sent their players into their shells, MTK instead preserving their advantage with little fuss and regaining a league title they last won in the 2013-14 season.

In contrast, Ferencváros couldn’t replicate their feat of winning the Hungarian Cup three times in a row in the domestic league championship.

MTK Hungária head coach György Szabados:

“We’ve put a lot of hard work into this success and I think that this team deserves the league championship gold medal for not conceding a goal to Ferencváros in 180 minutes of play. We battled until the end like a real team, playing football in a spirited and organised manner, showing that we have strength and desire and can decide important matches such as these too. We have worked for this success for the whole year and personally for me this gold medal is a huge delight because I’ve returned to my former club and in under a year built a team that could win the league title”.

Photo: MTI

Source: MLSZ – press release