A full house and around 1,000 supporters from Debrecen were waiting for the teams on Friday evening in the crucial Eastern derby at the City Stadium of Nyíregyháza. Due to injury, Balázs Megyeri, Krisztián Hegyi, Bence Batik, Neven Djurasek and Yacouba Silue were missing, while Tamás Szűcs was suspended due to the accumulation of yellow cards. However, János Ferenczi and Kristiyan Malinov were back in the squad.

The match started in an incredible atmosphere and a chance for Nyíregyháza as in the 3rd minute, Jokic curled the ball wide off the goal from 10 meters. The fight was tough, and in the 9th minute, Soma Szuhodovszki’s shot was blocked, while in the 12th minute, Brandon Domingues missed the target from a distance. In general, Loki was dominating and in the 18th minute, Brandon Domingues found himself in a one-on-one opportunity, but the home goalkeeper made a brilliant save to deny Brandon’s shot.

In the next minutes, our team had more possession of the ball, but in the 26th minute, Shuichi Gonda had to use his leg in order to save Beke’s attempt. There were chances at both goals and in the 36th minute, Amos Youga hit the crossbar. Until halftime, none of the teams could score.

The second half started with the attempts of Nyíregyháza, which did not mean much danger. At this period, the game was evenly balanced, but Gonda had to perform one big save. During this save, he collided with a player within the box and after a VAR review, the referee awarded a penalty. In the 55th minute, Eppel converted the penalty (1-0).

Thus, DVSC started the last 30 minutes from behind, but our team tried to increase the pressure. Kristiyan Malinov came off the bench, then Balázs Dzsudzsák and János Ferenczi also came on as substitutions. Debrecen players attacking, but could not create big chances.

Loki gave their all during the endgame: Domingues scored, but it was flagged for offside, then the referee sent-off Maximilian Hofmann. In the end, Loki could not equalize.

The next match will be against MTK on Saturday at Nagyerdei Stadium.

According to the coach

István Szabó: Now, I have understood what the Eastern derby means. After the first 10-15 minutes, we’ve found our way of play and played better until the goal. Then, some players got tired, but we were fighting from our hearts. Debrecen also gave their all, but we deserved to win this time.

Nestor El Maestro: We played better in the first half, while the second half was very intense and emotional. The small details decided, such as concentration, good and bad luck. We are really disappointed, but we will continue to fight.

OTP Bank Liga, round 29.

Nyíregyháza-DVSC 1-0 (0-0).

Nyíregyháza, 8246 spectators. Referee: Bognár T.

Nyíregyháza: Tóth B. – Jokic, Alaxai, Velkovski – Kovács M. (Keita, 73.), Toma, Farkas (Navratil, 70.), Nagy B. – Nagy D. (Temesvári, 81.), Beke (Medved, 81.) – Eppel. Head coach: István Szabó.

DVSC: Gonda – Castegren, Lang, Hofmann, Vajda (Ferenczi, 77.) – Szécsi (Malinov, 61.), Youga, Szuhodovszki (Dzsudzsák, 67.), Domingues – Bárány, Maurides. Vezetőedző: Nestor El Maestro.

Goal: Eppel (55., from penalty).

Yellow card: Alaxai (80.), Tóth (87.), Keita (96.), as well as Szécsi (34.), Szuhodovszki (43.), Gonda (54.), Malinov (93.), Bárány (96.), Youga (98.).

Sent-off: Hofmann (89.).