Hungarian league: Table-toppers Fradi too much for Haladás

The first round of NBI matches took place this weekend on the back of Hungary’s impressive display at Euro 2016. Numerous Hungary squad members from that continental tournament were in action, amongst them Gergő Lovrencsics who returned to Hungary to play for champions Ferencváros. Here, we round up the weekend’s action.

The two sides promoted from NBII last season, Mezőkövesd and Gyirmót, met at the home of the former looking to each post their first points of the season but in the end both had to settle for a draw. The first half belonged to the hosts, especially once Marek Strestik had taken the ball around the goalkeeper and slotted in to give Attila Pintér’s team a 22nd-minute lead, but a far more aggressive Gyirmót reemerged for the second half and duly turned the match on its head thanks to Dániel Lengyel’s 67th minute equaliser and Patrik Vass’s late header. There was still time though for Strestik to restore parity by sliding the ball into the left side of the goal following a left-wing cross. Paulejvics even missed a late chance to win it for Mezőkövesd when he blazed over the bar from close range, but both teams will be happy at least to remain unbeaten.

In the first Budapest derby of the season between Újpest and Honvéd the spoils went to the away team courtesy of two unanswered first-half goals. Újpest’s ground is being renovated so this game was played at Fay utca, normally the home of rivals Vasas, but the all-day rain made conditions tricky. Honvéd made the better of it early on and took the lead in the fourth minute, Márton Eppel laying the ball off to Patrik Hidi who found the bottom-right corner of the net. Although Újpest came back into it, they struggled to convert their possession into chances and when Eppel headed in Márk Koszta’s 44th minute cross they were left with a mountain to climb as the pitch deteriorated further. Honvéd threatened on the counter-attack in the second half as Nebojsa Vignjevic’s team struggled to get back into the game, the result staying the same with the visitors thoroughly deserving their win.

Later on Saturday evening last season’s league and cup double-winners Ferencváros eased to a routine win at their Groupama Aréna home against Haladás, Flórián Trinks heading in a right-wing cross from Dániel Böde in the fourth minute before Böde took centre stage, first rifling a low shot across Gábor Király and into the far left side of the goal three minutes later before punishing Király for a poor pass with a smart interception and cool finish into an empty net as half-time approached. Géza Mészöly’s visiting team did pull a goal back via a Bence Iszlai penalty in the 53rd minute but from thereon Fradi looked the more threatening side and Király was forced into action on several occasions before the whistle blew on a 3-1 victory for Ferencváros.

The three other teams who finished in last season’s top six were all in action on Sunday but they didn’t fare as well as the champions, none of them claiming a maiden win of the season.

Runners-up Videoton got off to the perfect start when Róbert Feczesin guided Botond Antal’s half-clearance into the net in just the second minute but that it as good as it got for new coach Henning Berg who saw his charges concede an equaliser in the 17th minute when Diosgyőr’s István Bognár tricked his way to the edge of the area and shot with the outside of his left foot into the far right of the goal. Even worse was to follow 22 minutes later as Bognár broke the offside trap and latched onto Ákos Elek’s superb pass before scoring from 11 metres out to hand the lead to the visitors. The ‘home’ team, playing their home fixtures at the Pancho Aréna in Felcsút, tried their best to level the scores but despite attacking substitutions they were unable to find a way through, even when they faced only ten men after Pál Lázár was dismissed for a second bookable offence. Indeed, Bognár could have completed his hat-trick had Vidi goalkeeper Kovácsik not saved his penalty after the DVTK forward had been fouled in the penalty area.

MTK Budapest also started the new campaign with a loss as capital-city rivals Vasas, who only survived relegation on the last day of last season, took all three points thanks to Martin Ádám’s spotkick after Patrik Pöőr, who had missed a good opportunity to score for MTK in the first half, had chopped down Ádám in the penalty box in the 56th minute. MTK subsequently had chances to equalise but couldn’t hit the target, thus it was Michael Oenning’s Vasas who could celebrate an unexpectedly successful start to the 2016/17 season.

The sixth and last match of the weekend saw Debrecen host Paks in the Nagyerdői stadion and it was the visitors who started in the ascendancy, but their strikers couldn’t find the target early on. Instead it was Elemér Kondás’ team which took the lead, Tamás Takács finishing off a lovely phase of play in the 37th minute. The seven-time Hungarian champions couldn’t extend that lead though and they paid for it just before the hour mark when János Szabó’s left-wing cross was slammed in first-time by the arriving László Bartha six metres from goal. Two minutes later, Mihály Korhut spurned a glorius chance to restore Debrecen’s lead when Szabó gave away a penalty, but the Hungary international left-back saw his spotkick saved by debutant goalkeeper Szabolc Kemenes and 1-1 was how it stayed, despite the best efforts of the Europa League participants on their home turf.

So already Ferencváros lead NBI on goals scored after one round of fixtures but next weekend hands them a tough task away at Honvéd. Elsewhere, Haladás host Mezőkövesd, Újpest travel to Miskolc to face Diosgyőr, Gyirmót entertain MTK, Paks are at home to Videoton and Debrecen are on the road at Vasas.

Photo: MTI

Source: MLSZ