Hungarian Football League – Round 9: Diosgyőr pull clear of relegation zone with last-minute winner

Tamás Egerszegi’s added-time winning goal secured a thrilling 3-2 victory for Diosgyőri VTK against Puskás Akadémia and in the process lifted the club from Miskolc well clear of the relegation zone into seventh position in the NBI league table. Elsewhere, there were wins for Debrecen, Ferencváros and Videoton and draws at Paks and Haladás.

A see-saw game in the city of Miskolc saw the home team establish a two-goal lead thanks to Drazen Okuka and Soma Novothny only to squander it in the last ten minutes as Puskás Akadémia hit back through leading goalscorer László Pekar and youngster Donát Zsótér. In the 92nd minute though an almighty meleé ensued in the visitors’ penalty area where Egerszegi was on hand to head the ball in and decide the match in Diosgyőr’s favour.

Current NBI champions Videoton followed Diosgyőr in scoring three goals but this time without reply as they eased to a 3-0 win over ten-man Újpest in Székesfehérvár, Ádám Gyurcsó notching a second-half brace, the first a penalty, before István Kovács added gloss to the scoreline in the 89th minute against an Újpest side which had been reduced to ten men following Jonathan Heris’s dismissal for violent conduct in the 72nd minute when the score was just 1-0.

The team to suffer in terms of league position from Vidi’s win was Vasas who now slip into the relegation zone after Tamás Kulcsár’s 78th-minute winner from 11 metres out helped Debrecen condemn the men from Angyalföld to a sixth defeat of the season. Below Vasas lie only Békéscsaba who suffered a predictable but narrow defeat away at leaders Ferencváros, Dániel Böde continuing his hot streak in front of goal with a strike which means he has scored in eight consecutive league matches, the first person to do this for Fradi since Ferenc ‘Bamba’ Deák in the 1948/49 title-winning season. In 19 league matches in their new stadium, Hungary’s most successful team historically have now kept 14 clean sheets and with this win are now on 27 points, 11 clear of Haladás in second place.

Talking of whom, Haladás dropped points for the second week in a row and have Gábor Király’s penalty save to thank for the one point they did gain from a goalless draw at home to Budapest Honvéd. Richárd Vernes was the guilty party for the visitors, seeing his spotkick saved after András Gosztonyi had brought down Botond Baráth. Paks and MTK also played out a goalless draw at the home of the former, the visitors’ Bouard Ramos coming closest to breaking the deadlock as early as the 3rd minute when he struck the post with a 15-metre volley. MTK remain in third spot in the league three places and two points ahead of Paks who have 14 points from their nine matches thus far.

Next weekend sees another traditional Budapest derby in the form of Újpest against MTK, while Ferencváros travel to Puskás Akadémia, Haladás host Vasas, Bekéscsaba look to get get back to winning ways against Videoton, Honvéd entertain Diosgyőr and Debrecen make the journey to Paks.

Photo: MTI