Vidi took the lead through Nikolic early on but his goal was cancelled out in the second half.
Vidi made the visit on Tuesday evening to the Hungarian Cup winners Bp. Honved. The game was played at the temporary home of MTK's Hidegkuti Stadium in Budapest. Match 28 of the OTP league saw Joan Carrillo make 5 changes to the team that started on Saturday against Kisvarda. Loic Nego missed the match due to 5 yellow cards and Rus, Vinicius, Nyari and Houri did not start the game. In came Hangya, Juhasz, Elek, Kovacs and Funsho.
The game started well with Funsho curling the ball in on 4 minutes towards goal. Petryak did well to nicely lay the ball into the path of Nikolic, who found the bottom left corner giving Tujvel no chance in the home goal (0-1). It was the forward's 91st goal for Vidi and he is now just 20 behind Jozsef Szabo who holds the record with 111 goals for the club.
Niko could have been a goal closer to that record after 18 minutes. Another good moved ended with a low cross into the middle but a home defender slid in and the ball hit his hand. The referee awarded a penalty for the handball from Mezgrahni. Nikolic stood behind the ball and powerfully struck it but Tujvel was equal to it and he saved well. The loose ball fell to Patkai who forced another good stop from the former Vidi keeper, who suffered a cut to the side of his head from the out stretched leg of Nikolic, who made accidental contact. He received lengthy treatment but was able to continue.
In the 33rd minute, Honved's Italian striker Lanzafame was cunning and tried to lob the ball over Kovácsik from the middle of the pitch, but the shot went wide of the goal. 41 minutes had elapsed when there was a great chance for Lanzafame to score after a good cross from the right found Kovácsik alone, but he chipped it the wrong side of the post. At the end of the first half, the referee added 6 minutes of injury time, but there were no further chances.
The second half saw Honved begin well and Ugrai shot from the left at goal from 11 meters after 49 minutes, but the ball hit the side netting. Ugrai was again dangerous after 55 minutes from 18 meters when his low shot at goal was saved by Kovacsik.
In the 63rd minute, the superiority of Kispest produced a goal: Gazdag took the ball towards goal, which Kovácsik saved well from close range, but the danger was not cleared and Ugrai kept his composure to score from 12 meters (1-1).
Tujvel pulled off a smart save from the head of Stopira on 74 minutes, and then 3 minutes later, a cross from Hangya was met at the far post by the unmarked Nikolic, but the forward hit his effort wide from 7 meters. Honved's two subs, Moutari and Nagy both had chances towards the end but the latter saw his shot blocked by Juhasz and the final result was 1-1.
Our team are next in action next Sunday against Ujpest at the MOL Arena Sosto.
Author: David Rechnitzer