HUNGARIAN FOOTBALL LEAGUE, ROUND 7 – The “low-budget” Haladás is still on the second position

A remarkable turnaround in added time saw Diosgyőr score twice and overhaul unbeaten Újpest 2-1 in Miskolc this weekend. A penalty by Balázs Balogh in the 14th minute seemed set to be enough for the Budapest club to take all three points but former Újpest player István Bognár equalised for the hosts with a superb free-kick in the 92nd minute and then set up Tamás for an incredible 94th-minute winner.

Amazingly, this is the second time this month that Balázs Bekő’s Diosgyőr have been involved in such a dramatic turn of events, last time losing out when Videoton scored two goals in injury time to earn Bernard Casoni his only league win as Vidi head coach before his sacking a fortnight ago.

Újpest’s arch-rivals Ferencváros meanwhile continued their serene progress at the summit of NBI, defeating Paks 2-0 in front of 7,497 fans at the Groupama Aréna with first-half goals from the league’s top scorer Dániel Böde, his eighth of the season, and Roland Lamah. This was their seventh win out of seven league matches and Thomas Doll’s 50th victory in Hungarian football, one which means Fradi maintain their seven-point lead over Haladás in second spot.

Haladás, the club from Szombathely in western Hungary led by Géza Mészöly, won again away from home, this time in Békéscsaba thanks to a 27th-minute winner from Márió Németh who has now struck in the last three league matches, two of which have resulted in wins for Haladás for whom goalkeeper Gábor Király has gone 360 minutes without conceding a goal. Zoran Spisjak’s Békéscsaba, meanwhile, have yet to score at home and are desperate to add to their solitary victory from seven matches thus far.

The two clubs in Hungary now most associated with football legend Ferenc Puskás, Budapest Honvéd and Puskás Akadémia, played out a goalless draw in front of 2,800 spectators at the Bozsik Stadion in Kispest. Marco Rossi’s Honvéd are ten games unbeaten at home but this was the second time in a row they failed to garner all three points. The Puskás Akadémia coached by former Real Madrid player Robert Jarni have drawn their last three matches away from home so the outcome was not a surprise but perhaps the lack of goals was; already in their third year in Hungary’s top tier, this was the team from Felcsút’s first ever top-flight goalless draw away from home.