Zalaegerszeg secure maiden MOL Hungarian Cup glory

Whatever would happen, Hungarian football history was certain to be written in the Puskás Aréna on Wednesday evening, neither top-flight representative Zalaegerszegi TE nor second-tier Budafók ever having won the Hungarian Cup in its 113-year history.

There was barely a non-Hungarian player on the pitch when the two teams kicked off in front of 24,152 spectators and it was clear from the outset that this was to be a fiercely contested battle with neither side taking a step back. That made it rather attritional though and the first half was notable only for Dávid Kálnoki-Kis's 20th-minute attempted clearance of Péter Beke's low cross, which looped up onto the Zalaegerszeg crossbar and back out. 

The sides couldn't be separated by half-time or full-time as the competitive yet uneventful pattern of the game persisted and when extra time took on the same guise, it looked as if only a penalty shootout would separate the teams. However, Zalaegerszeg's 19-year-old substitute Dániel Németh had other ideas, latching onto a poor defensive pass in the 117th minute and rifling the ball past Budafok goalkeeper Bence Gundel-Takács from a tight angle to hand his team a crucial advantage at a late stage.

Five minutes later, in the 2nd minute of added time in extra time, the destination of the Cup was put beyond doubt when Németh's fellow substitute Szabolcs Szalay curled a 22-metre free-kick into the top-left corner of the net, a goal which secured the southern-Hungarian side a 2-0 victory over a gallant but ultimately luckless Budafok.

BUDAFOKI MTE 0–2 ZTE FC
Puskás Aréna, att: 24,152. Officials: Vad II. István (Tóth II. Vencel, Albert István)
BUDAFOK: Gundel-Takács – Nándori (Vaszicsku, 106), Jagodics, Fótyik – Bíró M. (Fekete M., 89), Csonka A., Oláh B., Kalmár O. (Margitics, 106) – Beke (Bakti, 100), Kovács D. (Németh Márió, 65), Horváth O. (Vasvári, 78)
Head coach: János Mátyus
ZTE: Demjén – Mocsi A., Kálnoki-Kis, Csóka D. – Mim (Huszti, 46), Szankovics (Kovács B., 111), Szendrei N., Gergényi (Bedi, 98) – Ubochioma (Szalay Sz., 77), Ikoba (Németh D., 46), Tajti.
Head coach: Gábor Boér
Goalscorers: Németh D. (117.), Szalay Sz. (120+2.)