The Match of the Century, Hungary-Croatia and the women's Hungarian Cup final

2020. március. 31., 22:30 |

Judit Berkesi, the M4 Sport TV reporter and member of the MLSZ Women's Committee, is a former Hungarian Cup Final footballer who's committed to contributing to the women's game. In recent years, she has become the Hungarian voice of women's football and is regularly heard reporting on NB I and women's national-team games. Judit also participated in the 2019 Women's Champions League Final in Budapest as the event's ambassador and was welcomed at the opening of the Puskás Aréna in November last year. In this article, she talks about some of her favourite football matches, videos of which are available on MLSZ's Youtube channel.

MEN'S MATCHES:

England 3-6 Hungary (friendly)
November 25th, 1953

https://youtu.be/yqp6GSgRtRs

I have to start my match with a match which, like most football lovers in Hungary, I wasn't able to follow live, but is one of the most important football matches I've encountered. This is the 'Match of the Century', one of the 'Magical Magyars' most memorable clashes. How interesting it is that I can name the starting lineup as if I would be simply waking up from a dream: Grosics, Buzánszky, Lóránt, Lantos, Bozsik, Zakarias, Budai II, Kocsis, Hidegkuti, Puskás, Czibor. The whole match can be viewed while listening to the commentary of György Szepesi. A must for any sports lover!

Slovenia 2-1 Hungary (friendly)
August 20th, 2003

https://youtu.be/DVvbhxKkDCg

Losing national-team matches are rarely remembered fondly, but I do this for one reason. In this friendly match against Slovenia, the late Miklós Fehér scored his last goal for the Hungarian national team before his tragic death. The Benfica's striker's header was only a consolation goal that day, but not even in our worst dreams would we have imagined it would be the 24-year-old's last goal in Hungarian colours...

Hungary 2-1 Croatia (UEFA EURO 2020 qualifier)
March 24th, 2019

https://youtu.be/xGrzpigRph8

An important match from recent times. Defeating the most recent World Cup finalists was a huge success for Marco Rossi's team, especially since the team had lost in Slovakia three days previously in their first European Championship qualifier. We have not yet qualified for this edition of the tournament, which will jointly hosted here in Budapest, but we know that the finals will not take place this year.

WOMEN'S MATCHES:

2014/2015 Football League Championship and Cup Final (MTK vs FTC)

https://youtu.be/RAFBzWJA-OI

The Ferencváros women's football team enjoyed its first League Championship and Cup double in 2015, but not only did Balázs Dörnyei's squad win these trophies, they did it by defeating the then defending champions MTK Hungária, in the two final championship finals and in the final of the Hungarian Cup. Almost unbelievably, all three games were won by Fradi via penalty shootouts, thus both trophies ended up in Ferencváros' hands. Incidentally, MTK's Angéla Hummel-Smuczer, who is Hungary's most-capped player with 126 appearances, was earlier a teammate of mine at the St László Korház club.

2017/2018 Women's Football League Championship Final (FTC v MTK)

https://youtu.be/rqgzkgcQzy8
https://youtu.be/qrRA-lI-3VY
https://youtu.be/OtuPOheVCm0

Few people would have thought that after 2017, MTK would be able to defeat Ferencváros, who, until that point, were unbeaten in the championship all season. The final was run in a best-of-three format for the first time in the championship's history, and it was MTK who won the final leg to win 2-1 on matches and finally enjoy the 8th league championship title in their history.

2019 Women's Hungarian Cup Final (FTC 4-3 DVTK)

https://youtu.be/YQcwbdHUub0
https://youtu.be/fpDQ9lRIBcw
https://youtu.be/Ih5r1gJvbQk

As in 2018, the two Hungarian Cup finalists were Ferencváros and Diósgyőr and in this exciting, high-quality and high-scoring final, Ferencváros finally prevailed to claim their fifth Hungarian Cup victory.

Hungary 7-1 Romania (warm-up tournament)
March 11th, 2020

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=746838095845444

Last but not least, I recommend watching the video of the Hungarian women's team's most recent match, the final fixture of a warm-up tournament in Turkey which Edina Markó's side won 7-1, despite the Romanians taking the lead at the start of the match. Evelin Fenyvesi led Hungary to a second-half reversal in fortunes as they closed out the tournament in style.