There was a real football atmosphere during the first-leg match of the 3^rd qualifying round of the UEFA Conference League, when Loki played away against Rapid Wien in front of 17,000 spectators on Thursday evening in Vienna. Almost 1000 fans accompanied our team to Austria, which gave a huge support to the players. Unfortunately, János Ferenczi was not in the squad because of his injury but among the starting eleven we could see Joao Oliveira, who arrived at Loki in summer.

As it was expected, Rapid tried to press and attack already at the beginning of the match but we started in a calm manner and had a lot of ball possession. The first bigger chance came in the 12^th minute, when Balázs Megyeri had to save the close curl of Seidl. In the 17^th minute, at the end of a beautiful attack, Joao Oliveira was fouled 17 meters away from the goal and from the resulting free-kick, Balázs Dzsudzsák took a fantastic shot, which hit the goalpost.

In the next minutes, DVSC was still playing well and in the 29^th minute, it looked like Márk Szécsi was fouled within the box but the referee did not award a penalty kick. In the 32^nd minute, Grüll shot just wide from a free-kick and towards the end of the first half, the referee did not award a goal for the home team due to a handball. Megyeri had to make one more brilliant save until the halftime, but no valid goals were scored, and our team performed well.

At the beginning of the second half, the game’s dynamics remain unchanged; Loki was effectively holding back Rapid and led some beautiful attacks. The excitement grew and there was a tough fight. In the 58^th minute, Balázs Megyeri saved Kühn’s shot, and in the 61^st minute, Brandon Domingues came on as a substitute.

At that point, the game was uninterrupted several times, but our team was still an equal opponent of Rapid Wien. In the final minutes, Donát Bárány and Alexandros Kyziridis also came on as substitutes and Loki was becoming more dangerous in front of the opponent’s goal. In the 80^th minute, after Bárány’s passing, Kyziridis hit the left goalpost from 10 meters. Thus, our team was close to scoring in both halves.

In the endgame, Loki was playing better than Rapid (József Varga and Alexander Mojzis also came on) but no goals were scored. DVSC is still undefeated away in 2023, and the return match will take place next Thursday at 9 pm. in Nagyerdei Stadium.

With the eyes of the coach

Zaran Barisic: It was confirmed that Debrecen is a strong opponent. We had more chances in the first half but we were not able to score. In the second half, both teams had some chances. The return match is going to be exciting and the question who qualifies for the next round is still open.

Srdjan Blagojevic: It was a really demanding match, Rapid was considered to be the favourite in this game but we stayed alive. The second match will decide our fate, we are waiting for the return match in Debrecen. We have improved, and this game was a little bit like the one that we played away against Ferencváros. It was hard to implement our plan, but I would like to praise my players because they reacted very well on the intensive football of our opponent. We can be better and must be better.

UEFA Conference League, 3rd qualifying round, 1st match.

Rapid Wien-DVSC 0-0.

Allianz Stadium, 17 200 spectators. Referee: Rob Hennessy (Irish).

Rapid: Hedl – Schick, Querfeld, Cvetkovic, Auer – Kühn (Strunz, 81.), Sattlberger (Greil, 69.), Kerschbaum, Grüll (Bajic, 89.) – Seidl (Mayulu, 81.), Burgstaller. Head coach: Zoran Barisic.

DVSC: Megyeri – Kiusnyír, Dreskovic, Romanchuk, Manrique – Lagator, Loncar (Mojzis, 91.) – Szécsi (Domingues, 61.), Dzsudzsák (Varga J., 91.), Joao Oliveira (Kyziridis, 70.) – Dorian Babunski (Bárány, 70.). Head coach: Srdjan Blagojevic.

Yellow card: Querfeld (17.), Seidl (44.), Cvetkovic (75.), Kerschbaum (91.), as well as Joao Oliveira (45+4.).