OTP Bank Liga: spring season begins

FERENCVÁROS - PAKS
(Groupama Arena, 14:55)

The end of the autumn season in December came at a bad time for an in-form Paks after they'd won their last two games and they'dhave been looking forward to this fixture even more, given they've only lost once at Üllői út since April 2016. There've been changes in both squads during the winter, Marten Wilmots and Tamás Priskin exited Ferencváros, while Somalia has returned, Bálint Vécsei returns to Hungary from Lugano in Switzerland and youngster Regő Szánthó has arrived from Győr. For Paks, Benjámin Cseke, Remili Mohamed and former international Ádám Simon have left, Tamás Egerszegi has again been loaned to Diósgyőr and reinforcements have arrived in the form of Dénes Szakály (Siófok), Lajos Bertus (Mezőkövesd) and Norbert Szélpál (Békéscsaba). Previously, Szakály and Bertus have both been first-team regulars.

MOL FEHÉRVÁR – BUDAPEST HONVÉD
(MOL Arena Sóstó, 17:00)

The tie of the round sees Fehérvár welcome Honved in the hope of improving their home record; they have lost four of their last five league matches in Székesfehérvár. There has been little change in their squad, with only Lyes Houri, a Moroccan-born French footballer who played two matches in Ligue 1, joining from Vitorul in Constanza where he won the Romanian Cup. Enisz Ben-Hatira, Krisztián Vadócz and Márk Hegedűs have all left Honvéd but Patrik Hidi has returned and there is a new Costa Rican player in town, Mayron George, who has joined on-loan having played in Denmark and Norway in recent years.

MEZŐKÖVESD ZSÓRY – KISVÁRDA MASTER GOOD
(Mezőkövesd, 17:00)

The Borsod club has undergone more major changes than usual, four players exiting including Lajos Bertus, Dávid Dombó, Miklós Sajbán and Gábor Molnár, all of whom except Budaörs-bound Sajban have remained in the OTP Bank Liga. Former national-team defender Richard Guzmics has returned home from Slovan Bratislava while two foreigners, Marin Jurina and Dino Beširović, have arrived, the latter having played once for the Bosnian national team in 2018. For the time being, Csanád Novák, who is returning from a loan spell, is again training with the squad.The afore-mentioned Dombó has signed for Kisvárda and the club has been further boosted by the arrivals of Fernando Viana, Richard Jelena, Nemanja Obradovic and Slobodan Simovic. However, Hugo Seco from Portugal, Felipe, the Brazilian goalkeeper and his compatriot, Ânderson Pico who rarely played, have all departed.

ZALAEGERSZEGI TE – DIÓSGYŐR VTK
(Zalaegerszeg, 17:00)

ZTE have lost five players Szilárd Devecser, Miroszlav Grumics, Oleh Hologyuk, Martin Hudák and Máté Kiss all moving to pastures new. They have been replaced by American Eric McWoods from Estonian football and Meshack Ubochioma from Nigeria, as well as Fanos Katelaris from Cyprus and Stjepan Ostrek from Croatia on loan. Zala's opponents, meanwhile, have seen Martin Juhar, Yannick Ndzoumou, Ismaila Ousman, Dániel Prosser and Patrik Bacsa leave, Prosser a particular loss given that the new MTK player was a key player in autumn. Three Hungarian players - Tamás Egerszegi, Tamás Kiss, Gábor Molnár - have come in on-loan, while the club have paid transfer fees for Colombian José Ricardo Cortés and Albanian Hysen Memolla.

KAPOSVÁR RÁKÓCZI FC – PUSKÁS AKADÉMIA
(Kaposvár, 17:00)

Kaposvár have brought in Latvian Igors Tarasovs and Croatian Dinko Trebotić has been loaned from Dinamo Minsk, the latter a player who is no stranger to Hungarian football having played for Videoton (now MOL Fehérvár) between 2014 and 2016. Bálint Tömösvári's loan contract has expired and Vanja Markovics, Csaba Tóth, Gergely Csaba and Aljosa Vojnović have all departed. The Puskás Akadémia have loaned out Lóránd Fülöp, Tamás Kiss and Alen Skribek while three foreigners have arrived, Artyom Favorov from Ukraine, Jakub Plšek from Czech Republic and Luciano Slagveer from the Netherlands.

DEBRECENI VSC – ÚJPEST
(Debrecen, 19:00)

Loki's squad hasn't changed, no player coming in or leaving the OTP Bank Liga squad since the autumn. However, there is a new head coach, András Herczeg's resignation resulting in Zoltán Vitelki taking over the reins. The changes at Újpest have received much media attention in recent days, Soma Novothny returning home but Róbert Feczesin heading to second-tier Vasas. Tamás Fadgyas, Lóránt Kovács, Rosy Lubaki, Karol Mészáros and Bojan Sankovics have all exited Megyeri út, the latter, a midfielder from Montenegro, having played 132 matches in the OTP Bank League under the guidance of Nebojsa Vignjevics before now signing for Kazakh club Irtis Pavlodar, from where Patrik Hidi has returned to Honved. In addition to Novothny returning from South Korea, Patrik Bacsa has joined from Diósgyőr as has Romanian Andreias Calcan, who in autumn was a teammate at Vitorul Constanza of Fehérvár-bound Lyes Houri.