Match Report: Defeat away at Paks

After the return leg in Gabala on Thursday, which ended with Vidi going through, the team trained in Azerbaijan on Friday, and after a long journey and a training session on Saturday, the team played in Paks on Sunday. Michael Boris was expecting the eleven of Kovács D. - Fiola, Serafimov, Shabanov - Nego, Pinto, Makarenko, Dárdai, Heister - Kodro - Zivzivadze to start, while on the other side, Róbert Waltner, made his debut on the Paks bench, and named Bálint Szabó, who came through the youth team of Fehérvár, and 57-time international Tamás Kádár as starters.

The first big chance came in front of Kodro, in the 4th minute the Bosnian striker headed just inches wide of the goal after a cross from Nego. After that, the game was mostly played in the middle until the 17th minute, when Balázs Balogh's long-range shot went wide of the target, and ten minutes later Nego's rebounded shot was saved by Gergely Nagy in the home goal. After half an hour, Zivzivadze, who scored in both games against Gabala, flashed a shot from the corner of the penalty area, which Nagy pushed wide with a fine tip.

In the 33rd minute Makarenko started a move and passed to Dárdai, who crossed well into the middle, and was met with a header from Zivzivadze, who brought a saved by Nagy. In the 38th and 40th minutes, after further crosses from the edge of the box, Budu and Pinto were in position again, but they failed to score, unlike Barnabás Varga in the 41st minute, who took Haraszti's ball behind the defenders, pushed it past Kovács and calmly rolled it into the net (1-0). The half ended with a lively Rúben Pinto shot - Gergely Nagy saved well at the near post.

Neither manager made a substitution at the break, and after four minutes of the second half, Dárdai provided another good cross and Kodro produced a nice flick, but from the five-yard line he missed the target with the ball. A minute later Windecker shot from inside the penalty area into the top right corner, the goal was reviewed by VAR for minutes, but the officials eventually ruled the goal valid (2-0).

In the 60th minute Michael Boris made three substitutions, with Bumba, Hangya and Petryak replacing Makarenko, Heister and Rúben Pinto. Five minutes after the changes, Nego passed to Kodró, whose shot was well on target but bounced off one of the home full-backs and behind the goal line. Paks then tightened up a bit and within a minute we had two corners, Attila FIola even tried a scissor kick but was unsuccessful. In the 72nd minute Nego powered over the goal from 15 metres, then Funsho replaced Dardai. 

The Nigerian striker, who has also been a Hungarian citizen since May, didn't need much time to get into position, but his header into the centre of the goal was saved by Gergely Nagy. In the 81st minute, a 20-metre shot from Bumba bounced off Nagy and Szabó cleared the ball into the corner. After the corner kick, Petryak's low effort was saved by the Paks goalkeeper. We kept attacking, with Kodro's long-range shot in the 82nd minute being saved by Nagy, while Budu's 3-meter header was also saved by the Paks goalkeeper. In the 85th minute, Paks got away with a counterattack, but Máté Sajbán was unlucky to roll the ball from 14 metres out. In the 90th minute, Bumba tried again, but Gergely Nagy saved everything in this Sunday's match. Referee Bognár added five minutes, but it was only enough for a Fiola-Nagy Richárd tangle (both players got yellow cards) and a big save by Dániel Kovács, so we left Paks without a point.