Puskás Akadémia top of NB I at winter break

Zsolt Hornyák's Puskás Akadémia will be dreaming of a first ever Hungarian league title during the forthcoming winter break after finishing the first half of the season on 35 points, a point ahead of current title-holders Ferencváros, who admittedly have a game in hand. That will be played against Zalaegerszeg (ZTE) in February when the 35-time Hungarian champions from the capital city of Budapest will hope overtake the pretenders to their title, one which, if they were to prevail, would become their seventh in a row. 

Part of the challenge for Fradi to retain their title this time round has been to cope with the extra number of matches incurred by participating in the league phase of the revamped UEFA Europa League. Having earlier exited Champions League qualifying at the hands of Danish club Midtjylland, Pascal Jansen's team have impressed at times in UEFA's second-most prestigious club competition and currently lie 16th in the 36-team table, safely in the play-off qualification places for the knockout stages with two fixtures of the league phase left.

Four points behind Fradi in the Hungarian OTP Liga table are third-placed Diosgyőr, enjoying their best season for a number of years following their recent promotion back to the top tier and and a further point behind them in fourth sit another Budapest giant, MTK. Meanwhile, the fight to avoid the two relegation spots seems to be between Kecskemet who prop up the table on 11 points, Debrecen on 13 points, ZTE on 16 and the two newly-promoted clubs, Nyíregyháza and ETO FC Győr, on 18 points, with exactly 17 of the 34 rounds having been played by everyone except the aforementioned Ferencváros and ZTE. 

Another tight battle comes in the race to be NB I's top goalscorer, veteran Paks striker Dániel Böde and MTK's Jurina Marin leading the way on eight goals, just one ahead of five other players, including last season's Golden Boot winner, Barnabas Varga of Ferencváros, who has recovered well following his broken cheekbone sustained while playing for Hungary at EURO 2024 last summer.

The second half of the OTP Bank Liga season will resume on the weekend of the 1st/2nd February 2025. More details and statistics are available via this link: https://adatbank.mlsz.hu/league/63/0/29213/18.html