The DVSC-Újpest derby on Saturday evening was crucial for Loki in terms of points and the hope of participating in international cups was at stake. Erik Kusnyir, Jorgo Pellumbi and Thor Úlfarsson were still on rehabilitation, so they were out of the squad as well as Donát Bárány, who suffered a minor injury. Meldin Dreskovic was back on track, while Soma Szuhodovszki and Márk Szécsi got an opportunity to be in the starting XI this time. Before the match, Donát Bárány was greeted on the occasion of his 50^th appearance in the first division by the managing director of DVSC, Balázs Makray.

The match started basically in the 6^th minute with the close-range header of Romanchuk, which was saved by Banai. The guest team stood up with three centre-backs, so obviously, they were afraid of the attacks of Debrecen. It was difficult to find open spaces, but in the 13^th minute, Balázs Dzsuzdák made a free-kick from long-range, which went just over the goal. DVSC was getting creative in terms of attacks and in the 17^th minute, the goalkeeper of Újpest saved our captain’s powerful shot, after which János Ferenczi headed the ball over the goal.

In the middle of the first half, the match slowed down a bit after a break in play, then it became more exciting before the break. In the 28^th minute, Soma Szuhodovszki shot just wide off the goal from 18 meters (it looked like Banai touched the ball), not long after which Soma had one more attempt, but it was blocked. The first goal of Debrecen came in the 35^th minute: Brandon Domingues made a nice dribble, after which Kobouri scored an own goal, but it was ruled to be offside by VAR. The match had to be decided after the break.

The second half started with a dismissal for Újpest as Tamás fouled Botond Vajda very badly. After some VAR review, Berke gave him a red card. Thus, Loki appeared to be in a numerical superiority and a greater advantage, which our team tried to capitalize on. In the 60^th minute, Brandon Domingues narrowly missed with a diving shot, then Botond Vajda blasted the ball over the goal from the edge of the box. Our team increased the pressure and in the 66^th minute, after János Ferenczi’s header, the goalkeeper of Újpest pushed the ball onto the crossbar.

Tamás Batain came off the bench for the endgame (later Ádám Bódi, Stefan Loncar, Meldin Dreskovic and Christian Manrique also came on). In the 83^rd minute, Tamás Batai was close to scoring, but his backheel shot went wide off the goal. However, in the 88^th minute, Banai could only punch away the ball after Tamás Batai’s header, and the arriving Hamzat Ojediran rolled the ball into the net from close-range (1-0).

DVSC earned very important three point, which were well-deserved. We will continue next Sunday away against FTC.

According to the coach

Srdjan Blagojevic: It was a dramatic match, it must be exciting to watch our games. I am very happy and I would like to praise the players. They were not in an easy situation as we have lost many games, in which we’ve dominated. The guys proved that they believe in our joined work. The goal was a very emotional moment for us, it had to be like this. I would like my team to always play like this. We are still alive and we will fight until the end. I would like to say thanks for the fans, who constantly supported us and I would like to have this kind of atmosphere in the stadium all the time.

Géza Mészöly: Our plan was to play in an organized way and more or less, we succeeded in that. In the first half, we could not get close to the box, so we changed during the break, but the dismissal ruined our plan. We defended heroically, but in the end, we conceded a goal. On the other side, the referee wasn’t called out to check what happened exactly when Szécsi fouled our player.

OTP Bank League, round 30.

DVSC-Újpest 1-0 (0-0).

Nagyerdei Stadium, 6592 spectators. Referee: Berke B.

DVSC: Megyeri – Baranyai, Lagator, Romanchuk, Ferenczi – Ojediran (Dreskovic, 91.), Szuhodovszki (Loncar, 84.) – Vajda, Dzsudzsák (Manrique, 91.), Domingues (Bódi, 84.) – Szécsi (Batai, 74.). Head coach: Srdjan Blagojevic.

Újpest: Banai – Pauljevic, Keita, Kobouri, Antzoulas, Tamás K. – Geiger (Kovács, 90.) – Kiss T. (Radosevic, 46.), Tajti (Mucsányi, 91.), Csoboth (Sasere, 85.) – Ambrose (Mörschel, 46.). Head coach: Mészöly Géza.

Goal: Ojediran (88.).

Yellow card: Szécsi (23.), Lagator (86.) as well as Kobouri (43.).

Dismissal: Tamás K. (48.)