Hungarian Football League – Round 11: Haladás maintain unbeaten record since July as Fradi lengthen lead at top

A fourth goal of the season from rising Hungarian star midfielder Márió Németh cancelled out Soma Novothny’s opener for hosts Diosgyőri VTK and gave Szombathelyi Haladás a 1-1 away draw which preserves their unbeaten record in the league since an opening-day loss away at league leaders Ferencváros.

Talking of whom, Ferencváros celebrated their 3,000th league match with a 2-1 victory at home to Budapest rivals Budapest Honvéd. The visitors actually took the lead through Souleymane Youla’s third goal in three games against Fradi but veterán Tamás Hajnál and winger Roland Varga turned the match around with goals which made the half-time score 2-1. There were no further additions to the scoreline which means that Thomas Doll’s team have gone over a year unbeaten in NBI and are now on 31 points, a full 13 clear of the chasing pack.

Behind Ferencváros and Haladás in NBI is the unlikely name of Paksi FC who scored their first away goals of the whole season in defeating Vasas 2-1 in Budapest. Tamás Koltai scored his first goal for the club after his short stay at Videoton following a summer move from Győr before László Bartha added a second towards the end of the first half. Remili Mohamed’s fourth goal of Vasas’s nine this season reduced the arrears but the team from the Angyalföld district of Budapest couldn’t find an equaliser and therefore remain in the division’s relegation zone with ten points from eleven games.

The only team below Vasas is Békéscsaba 1912 Előre on eight points but at least this round they picked their fifth point in the last four games, an added-time leveller from Branislav Punosevac salvaging a home draw for Zoran Spilsjak’s team after veteran striker Sándor Torghelle had put MTK ahead in the 64th minute from close range.

Last season’s league champions Videoton have had very poor season so far but they got back to winning ways in their third consecutive home win of the season against ten-man Puskás Akadémia in the Sóstoi Stadion in Székesfehérvár. Former Puskás academy graduate Ádám Gyurcsó was the man who did the damage with another two goals to follow his brace against Újpest recently, his strikes coming either side of an Asmir Suljić goal, his first for the club following his transfer from Újpest, after the visitors’ Attila Fiola was shown a red card in just the sixth minute. Although Robert Jarni’s team battled gamely and even took a two-goal lead after going a man down thanks to goals from Lászlós Lencse and Pekár, they could not halt the Vidi onslaught as the game developed.

In the round’s final match Debreceni VSC and Újpest shared a 1-1 draw in the Nagyerdei Stadion in Eastern Hungary, Tibor Tisza giving the hosts the lead before Mbaye Diagne equalised for Újpest who have now gone eight league matches without a win and now lie ninth in the table just two points away from the relegation trapdoor. Next weekend there is no round of league fixtures due to the international break so battle will resume on 17th October with Videoton v Honvéd; Puskás Akadémia v MTK; Debrecen v Békéscsaba; Paks v Újpest; Vasas v Diosgyőr and Ferencváros v Haladás.

Source: mlsz.hu