OTP Bank Liga: Ferencváros stretch lead with win at Kaposvár

Kaposvár 2–3 Ferencváros

Goalscorers: KAP: Ádám (11’), Csiki (64’); FER: Isael (13’, 32’), Boli (75’)

Kaposvár: Slakta – Vachtler, Fodor, Hadaró, Nagy J. – Nagy T., Yakymiv (Nagy K., 61’) – Csiki, Beliczky (Zsiga, 80’), Nagy R. (Balázs, 79’) – Ádám M. 

Ferencváros: Gróf – Lovrencsics, Blažič, Botka (Frimpong, 75’), Heister – Ihnatenko, Kharatin – Isael, Nguen (Sigér, 80’), Zubkov – Boli (Signevich, 89’)

Two goals from Isael – taking his tally to four in three matches – set Ferencváros on their way at Kaposvár, Franck Boli firing home the winner with quarter of an hour to go after a fine Norbert Csiki strike had levelled the scores at 2-2 midway through the second half.

Martin Ádám gave Kaposvár an 11th minute lead, shooting low past Dávid Gróf after being teed up by Csiki. Isael had Ferencváros level within two minutes though, controlling a flighted pass from Oleksandr Zubkov before blasting past Balázs Slatka on the half-volley. Fradi were ahead by the 32nd minute, Isael sending a free-kick in from the right and the ball bobbling into the far corner past Slatka, who was surely expecting someone to get a touch, and Zubkov squandered a chance to make it 3-1 before the break, firing into Slatka with the goal gaping.

Serhiy Rebrov’s men paid for a lacklustre start to the second half when Csiki controlled the ball before volleying home from the edge of the penaty area. The winning goal game in the 75th minute, Franck Boli – who'd harshly had a goal chopped off for offside earlier on – finding half a yard of space for himself in the box before firing low into the corner of the net from 15 yards. Boli and Zubkov both came close to adding to Fradi’s tally late on, the former hitting the post with his last touch before being replaced by Nikolai Signevich, and Zubkov again being denied by Slatka. Ferencváros thus increase their lead at the top of the table to three points with a game in hand, whilst Kaposvár are rooted to the bottom of the table on six points, five adrift of safety.

Diósgyőr 1-3 Fehérvár
Goalscorers: DIÓ: Bacsa (41’), Csiki (64’); FEH: Stopira (7’), Kovács (45+1’), Nikolov (86’)

Diósgyőr: Danilović – Shestakov (Orosz D., 90’), Polgár, Tamás M., Vági – Márkvárt, Iszlai – Hasani (Korbély, 72.), Rui Pedro, Prosser (Szabó B., 87’) – Bacsa
Fehérvár: Kovácsik – Nego, Juhász, Musliu, Stopira – Hadžić (Elek, 75.), Nikolov – Kovács (Pantić, 89’), Pátkai, Petriak (Milanov, 65’) – Futács

Joan Carillo got off to a fine start to his second stint in charge of Fehérvár, a 3-1 victory away to Diósgyőr temporarily lifting them top of the table before Ferencváros’s victory on Sunday, with the club from Székesfehérvár now sitting in second place having overtaken Mezőkövesd.

Fehérvár took a sixth-minute lead, Stopira stooping to head home from close-range after Branislav Danilović had done well to keep out a Visar Musliu effort. Diósgyőr levelled four minutes before the break, Patrik Bacsa poking the ball under Ádám Kovácsik after he and Boban Nikolov had played themselves into trouble. Danilović then did well to deny Nikolov following a Fehérvár counter-attack just before half-time but could do nothing a moment later when István Kovács weaved his way through home defence to restore the visitors’ lead.

Diósgyőr pressed for another equaliser after the break, Dániel Prosser’s shot crashing off the crossbar and Bacsa failing to convert the rebound, but Nikolov had the final say, making sure of the points for Fehérvár as he found the corner of the net with four minutes left to play after slaloming through the home defence.  

Puskás Akadémia 1-1 Mezőkövesd
Goalscorers: PUS: Henty (6’); MEZ: Zivzivadze (88’)
Puskás Akadémia: Hegedüs – Szolnoki, Meissner, Hadzhiev, Spandler – Van Nieff, Knežević – Mebrahtu, Henty (Sós B., 74’), Gyurcsó – Vaněček (Radics, 39’)
Mezőkövesd: Szappanos – Farkas D. (Vadnai, 79.), Pillár, Katanec, Silye – Berecz, Karnitsky – Pekár (Nagy D., 53’), Cseri, Vajda (Sajbán, 46’)  – Zivzivadze

Fourth were at home to second when Puskás Akadémia met Mezőkövesd at the Pancho Aréna in Felcsút, where a late Budu Zivzivadze equaliser giving the visitors’ a share of the points after Ezekiel Henty had given Puskás an early lead. Henty’s goal came after good work down the left from Csaba Spandler, Josip Knežević then crossing low for the Nigerian forward tap home into an empty net from two metres. Both sides lived dangerously with some less than convincing defending on show before Zsolt Hornyák’s side were reduced to ten men in the 29th minute, captain Roland Szolnoki picking up a second yellow card.

Péter Szappanos denied Henty a second goal early in the second half, whilst at the other end, Lajos Hegedüs had to look lively to tip an Alyaksandr Karnitsky effort over the bar, palm away a stinging Zsombor Berecz shot and then deny substitute Sajbán. Just when it seemed that Puskás Akadémia had resisted ever-increasing pressure from the visitors, Zivzivadze struck to level the scores with two minutes left to play. The result sees Mezőkövesd overtaken by Fehérvár, whilst Puskás remain fourth.

Kisvárda 2-0 Honvéd
Goalscorers: Gosztonyi (14’), Grozav (81’)
Kisvárda: Felipe – Hey, Kravchenko, Rubus, Protic – Karasyuk, Lucas, Gosztonyi (Seco 63’)  – Tsoukalas, Kovácsréti (Sassá 59’)  – Grozav
Honvéd: Tujvel - Batik, Kamber, Lovrić – Kesztyűs, Vadócz (Banó-Szabó 68’), Nagy G., Gazdag (N’Gog 75’), Aliji – Ben-Hatira (Moutari 59’), Lanzafame

Goals from András Gosztonyi and Gheorghe Grozav brought Kisvárda victory over Honvéd, thereby ending a run of seven matches undefeated in a row for Giuseppe Sannino’s side.

Gosztonyi opened the scoring in the 14th minute, tapping home after Anton Kravchenko had flicked on a Márk Kovácsréti free kick, and Tomáš Tujvel twice denied Grozav from increasing the home team’s lead in the half, Kisvárda unlucky to only be one goal ahead at the break.  

Honvéd were unfortunate not to equalise early in the second half, Kravchenko hitting his own crossbar in attempting to deny Davide Lanzafame and Felipe making a stunning double-save from Dániel Gazdag from the rebound. Grozav made the points safe with nine minutes to go, slotting home after good interplay by Hugo Seco and Lucas. The 2-0 result sees Honvéd lose ground on the top four whilst Kisvárda sit seventh, now only two points behind them.

Paks 2-4 Újpest
Goalscorers: PAK: Hahn (62’), Bor (85’); ÚJP: Feczesin (21’, 51’), Zsótér (61’), Pauljević (77’)
Paks: Rácz – Kulcsár D., Lenzsér, Fejes, Szabó J.  – Windecker, Simon Á. (Kecskés, 70’), Balogh B.  – Könyves, (Hahn, 46’), Böde, Remili (Bor, 78’)
Újpest FC: Banai – Pauljević, Heris, Ristevski, Bureković – Sanković – Onovo (Szakály P., 85’), Nwobodo, Zsótér, Bjarnason (Simon, 61’) – Feczesin

Nebojša Vignjević’s Újpest won for the third time in four, comfortably defeating Paks 4-2 with Hungary international striker Róbert Feczesin chipping in with two goals which put him top of the league's top scorers' chart on eight goals for the season. His first came in the 21st minute, Feczesin drilling the ball home low after Paks goalkeeper Gergő Rácz had spilled a cross. The second, six minutes into the second half, was a back-post header from a Branko Pauljević cross from the right.

Donát Zsótér made it three just after the hour and although János Hahn replied for Paks almost immediately, Pauljević all but finished the match as a contest when he blasted high into the net from the right with thirteen minutes left to play. There was still time for Dávid Bor to convert a János Szabó cross in the 85th minute, but Újpest never looked in any danger as they move to within two points of fifth-placed Honvéd, whilst Paks remain third-bottom, level on points with 11th place Zalaegerszeg.

Zalaegerszeg 0-2 Debrecen
Goalscorer: Garba (10’, 77’)
Zalaegerszeg: Demjén – Bolla, Bobál D., Devecseri, Bedi – Stieber, Mitrovic, Kocsis G. (Grumić, 73’), Radó – Ikoba (Babati, 58’), Bobál G.
Debrecen: Košický – Bényei, Szatmári, Pávkovics, Ferenczi – Kusnyír, Haris, Tőzsér – Szécsi (Adeniji, 64’), Garba (Trujić, 82’), Varga K. (Bódi, 74’)

A double from Haruna Garba gave Debrecen the points in Zalaegerszeg as András Herczeg’s side bounced back following defeats at the hands of Ferencváros and Kisvárda. Garba's first came after ten minutes, as the Nigerian forward outpaced the defence before slotting past Patrik Demjén, this after Tomáš Košický had twice been called into action to thwart Zalaegerszeg attacks. Demjén did well two minutes later to claw a wayward clearance from Dávid Bobál away from goal, whilst at the other end Csaba Szatmári also came close to scoring an own-goal not long before half-time, his headed clearance going wide by centimetres with Košický stranded.

Haruna made sure of the points with thirteen minutes left to play, drilling the ball low into the right-hand corner of the net from 15 yards with the outside of his left foot.  Zalaegerszeg threw everything in attack to get back into the game, Košický playing his part in Debrecen’s victory with three fine saves from Bence Bedi, Gergely Bobál, and Zoltán Stieber. Debrecen move up to eighth place on 18 points while Zalaegerszeg remain second-bottom with eleven.