On Saturday, Loki continued the league with a trip to Groupama Aréna to face FTC, who are competing in the league phase of Europa League. Among the starting XI was the young homegrown player of Loki, Gergő Tercza. Before the kick-off, the team paid tribute to our masseur, István Nagy, who sadly passed away earlier this week. The players also wore black armbands in his memory.

The opening stages were evenly contested, with a lot of duels on both sides. Backed by hundreds of travelling supporters, Loki made a strong start and Ferencváros struggled to cope with our style of play. Neither side could create any clear-cut chances in the opening 25 minutes.

DVSC led several promising attacks, had a lot of corners and caused problems for the home defence. In the 30th minute, Dénes Dibusz produced an excellent save to deny Blaz Boskovic’s header. Nevertheless, no goals were scored until the break.

At the very beginning of the second half, Plamen Andrejev confidently saved Corbu’s 17-meter shot, after which he denied Bagi’s attempt with his leg. Loki continued to play with confidence, and Maximilian Hofmann was the first substitute to enter the pitch, followed later by Bryan Adinany and Dominik Kocsis. In the 59th minute, DVSC came really close to taking the lead when Vilmos Dénes beat two opponents before striking the left post with a shot from 17 metres.

Our team continued to give an excellent account of themselves in the final half-hour, but the breakthrough came at the other end. In the 64th minute, Andrejev produced a superb save to deny Kovacevic from close range, but a minute later, Corbu made no mistake and scored (1–0). In the 70th minute, Balázs Dzsudzsák narrowly missed the target.

Loki threw everything in during the closing stages in search of an equaliser, with Josua Mejías also testing the goalkeeper. Our team’s persistence and territorial dominance finally paid off in the 92nd minute. Following a VAR review of a handball by Lisztes inside the penalty area of FTC, the referee awarded a penalty. Balázs Dzsudzsák stepped up and converted from the spot in the 95th minute to make it 1–1. DVSC fully deserved to secure one point. Well done, guys!

Loki will be back in action next Sunday, when they host ZTE at Nagyerdei Stadium.

According to the coach

Balázs Borbély: We didn’t play well in the first half an hour, we were too comfortable. After the break, we had some good periods, however, we could not use our chances after taking the lead. Thus, our opponent equalised at the end.

Gert Remmel: According to statistics, we had just a 15% chance of winning before the match, but we always try to win, wherever we play, and this game was no diferent. Our defense was better than during the previous matches. Regarding the referee’s decisions, we were not lucky many times, but we fought, and this time, we could take a penalty at the end.

OTP Bank Liga, round 9.

Ferencváros-DVSC 1-1 (0-0).

Groupama Arena, 11 593 spectators. Referee: Berke B.

FTC: Dibusz – Nagy O., Raemaekers, Gomez, Cadu – Nagy Á. – Yusuf (Birmancevic, 74.), Zachariassen, Corbu, Arzani (Lisztes, 58.) – Bagi (Kovacevic, 58., O’Dowda, 81.)). Head coach: Borbély Balázs.

DVSC: Andrejev – Tercza (Hofmann, 56.), Mejías, Lang, Guerrero – Batik, Boskovic – Baldoni (Kocsis D., 70.), Dzsudzsák, Dénes V. – Szendrei Á. (Adinany, 62.). Head coach: Gert Remmel.

Goal: Corbu (65.) as well as Dzsudzsák (95., penalty).

Yellow card: Yusuf (5.), Gomez (88.) as well as Mejías (25.), Kocsis D. (77.).