After the successful Match Day Festival and family day, DVSC played a special game against Zalaegerszeg at Nagyerdei Stadium. Srdjan Blagojevic has already left the club, while the new coach, Csaba Máté hasn’t been on the bench yet, so Tibor Dombi and his staff led the team. Although many players suffered from injuries, everyone was part of the squad, except Erik Kusnyir and Thor Úlfarsson, who were still doing the rehabilitation. Eight Hungarian players were among the starting XI, including Bence Batik, who debuted in Loki, Soma Szuhodovszki, Márk Szécsi and Donát Bárány, who had recovered from his injury.

The match was preceded by festive moments. Fifteen years ago, DVSC won the Hungarian Cup, the first big trophy in the life of the club. In 1999, Loki won 2-1 against Tatabánya in the cup final, which took place in Vác. There were 12,000 fans on site, most of them Debrecen supporters, who created an incredible atmosphere. The heroes of Loki from 25 years ago were honoured by our club management before the match. On behalf of the team, the legendary players of Loki, the multiple-champion and cup winner Zoltán Böőr, and Zsolt Vadicska, who scored the winning goal in the cup final, took the kick-off. Meldin Dreskovic, our Montenegrin defender, was also greeted at the beginning of the match on the occasion of his 50^th appearance in the colours of DVSC.

At the beginning of the match, DVSC quickly took control of the game. In the 2^nd minute, the goalkeeper of ZTE saved Arandjel Stojkovic’s shot. However, in the 5^th minute, ZTE took the lead: after a headed pass, Dénes shot the ball under the crossbar from the edge of the goal area (0-1). In the 13^th minute, Dénes had one more dangerous situation, but he headed just wide off the goal. It was followed by several home attacks, but no bigger chances were created.

After the water break, Loki still dominated. In the 29^th minute, after Balázs Dzsudzsák’s shot, the goalkeeper could only punch the ball away, but our team could not convert the rebound. In the 37^th minute, Gundel-Takács made a brilliant save to deny the header of Bence Batik, then in the 39^th minute, he performed another feat and saved Márk Szécsi’s powerful shot. The score stayed 0-1 until half-time.

At the beginning of the second half, our team maintained its dominance, while ZTE scored an offside goal. In the 50^th minute, Dusan Lagator hit the crossbar from long-range. The equalizer came in the 54^th minute: Donát Bárány was fouled within the box and Balázs Dzsudzsák converted the justifiable penalty (1-1).

In the 56^th minute, Tamás Szűcs shot just wide off the goal and Loki led several attacks. Finally, we took the lead! In the 65^th minute, Balázs Dzsudzsák gave a nice pass to János Ferenczi, who scored a goal from 7 meters (2-1).

DVSC could have scored several goals during the final minutes. After all, Loki scored one more: after another great pass of Balázs Dzsudzsák, Brandon Domingues, who came on as a substitute, dribbled out everyone and used the clear-cut chance. Thus, the match ended with a beautiful and memorable victory for Loki. The next match will be a cup game next week in Békéscsaba.

Reactions of the coaches

Tibor Dombi: We didn’t play bad in the first half, maybe we were a bit too excited. The goal that we conceded was against the run of play, but we equalized after the break. Our opponent broke and we did a comeback. I was expecting a dynamic play, which I got, so we did everything.

Gábor Márton: Congratulations to Debrecen on the victory.

OTP Bank Liga, round 6.

DVSC-ZTE 3-1 (0-1).

Nagyerdei Stadium, 5072 spectators. Referee: Rúsz M.

DVSC: Megyeri – Stojkovic, Batik, Pellumbi, Ferenczi – Lagator, Szűcs T. (Victor Braga, 89.) – Szuhodovszki (Shaghoyan, 89.), Dzsudzsák, Szécsi (Domingues, 86.) – Bárány (Silue, 81.). Interim coach: Dombi Tibor.

ZTE: Gundel-Takács – Szendrei N., Safronov (Evangelou, 59.), Várkonyi, Medgyes, Mim – Bakti (Németh D., 59.), Sankovic, Kiss B. – Sajbán M. (Spoljaric, 81.), Dénes (Nyíri, 71.). Head coach: Márton Gábor.

Goal: Dzsudzsák (54., 11-esből), Ferenczi (65.), Domingues (96.) as well as Dénes (5.).

Yellow card: Szécsi (61.), Pellumbi (63.), Domingues (96.) as well as Sankovic (21.), Várkonyi (51.), Evangelou (87.).