Hungarian Cup: Balmaz take giant step towards semi-finals

2018. március. 20., 10:52 |

Balmazújváros have taken a huge stride towards confirming their place in the Hungarian Cup semi-finals with a 5-0 first-leg home victory over Békéscsaba, Sándor Vajda inflicting the majority of the damage by completing a hat-trick within the first hour of play. Elsewhere, Budapest Honvéd and DVSC's first-leg contest finished goalless while Diógyőr and Újpest secured single-goal advantages ahead of the return legs on April 3rd and 4th.

Honvéd were rather unlucky, truth be told, having dominated proceedings but a missed penalty may turn out to cost them dearly, Márton Eppel firing his spotkick wide of the bottom-right corner of the goal before later seeing a goal ruled out for offside. That game finished goalless, leaving both teams with all to play for ahead of the second leg in Debrecen early next month.

As already mentioned, Balmazújváros should have nothing to worry about after blowing Békéscsaba away at home, the eventual 5-0 result already coming to pass by the 6oth minute on the completion of Vaja's hat-trick. Diósgyőr will also be confident of their chances of progression after Joannidis netted a 34th-minute winner away at Puskás Akadémia while Újpest capitalised on home advantage to defeat MTK 2-1 at home courtesy of strikes from Bojovic and Dániel Nagy, albeit Patrik Vass' reply keeps MTK within touching distance of qualification for the Hungarian Cup semi-finals if they can win 1-0 in the return leg in the New Nándor Hidegkuti stadium.

Hungarian Cup Quarter-final 1st legs

Played on Wednesday 14th March:

Budapest Honvéd 0–0 Debreceni VSC

Balmaz Kamilla Gyógyfürdő 5–0 Békéscsaba 1912 Előre (II.) (HT: 3–0)
Goalscorers: Vajda (23., 51., 60.), Zsiga (35.), Habovda (44.)

Played on Tuesday 13th March:

Puskás Akadémia 0–1 Diósgyőri VTK (0–1)
Goalscorers: Joannidis (34.)

Újpest FC 2–1 MTK Budapest (2nd division) (1–1)
Goalscorers: ÚJP: Bojovic (37.), Nagy D. (67.), MTK: Vass P. (39.)