EL qualifiers Honved next up in the Cup Final

The Hungarian 2018/19 season comes to an end on the 25th May. The final game will see MOL Vidi FC play Budapest Honved in the Hungarian Cup final. Honved will shortly see leading goalscorer Filip Holender move to Lugano in Switzerland, while keeper David Grof has mentioned on social media that he could also he leaving. The keeper has played in every league match since the 17th September 2016 as well as the 6 games in Europe during that time for Honved. However, second choice Andras Horvath has kept goal in all of the Hungarian Cup matches this season. 

It is interesting to note that Vidi's route to the final saw them knock out league champions Ferencvaros and third place Debrecen, while Honved have had a much easier journey: 

• a Győr-Moson-Sopron county II.  6th placed Bőny SE
• NB III east section - 2nd placed Jászberényi FC
• NB III east section - 9th placed Termálfürdő Tiszaújváros FC
• NB II 15. place Duna Aszfalt Tiszakécske VSE
• NB II 5th place Budaörs SC
• NB II 7th placed Soroksár SC

Honved did not come up against first division opponents on the way to the final.

Honved were in 5th place in the NB I from week 24 - 32 and it seemed like they would only be able to secure EL start by winning the Hungarian Cup. However, the final game of the season saw them comfortably win away at relegated MTK while then fourth placed Ujpest suffered defeat on the final day to slip to fifth. That meant a fourth place finish for Attila Supka's side and Europa League qualification without the need to win the cup final. 

The transfermarkt.de website values Holender at 700,000€ with Grof just behind on 650,000€. Daniel Gazdag is next up on 600,000€. Holender has also played the most minutes (3465) this season with Kamber behind him on 3347. Heffler follows on 3333. Another to have hit 3000 minutes is keeper Grof (3330) and Batik who has 3074 minutes in his legs this season. Holender is also top goalscorer with 20 goals to his name. He also has 4 assist to lead the Canadian Table. Danilo is on 13+4 and N'Gog with 11+5. Tonci Kukoc has not scored but he has provided 9 goals in the 2018/19 season. Winter signing Anis Ben Hatira has scored 5 goals and has also made 2 goals. 

Attila Supka will not have any players missing through suspension and his first team players are all fit without any injuries. Winter signing from Estonia, but a player who suffered injury before the second half of the season kicked off is Georgian Beglarishvili. He did appear once earlier this season on the bench but has not been involved since. Honved have 3 players in their squad with Vidi connections. Zsolt Poloskei was with Vidi between 2015-2017, Tibor Heffler 2014-2016 and Patrik Tischler in the spring of 2016. The manager himself was a player with Vidi from July 1987 until March 1998.