The first ever OTP league match at the MOL Arena Sosto stadium ended in a single goal victory.
It was almost three years ago that the last competitive game was played at the Sosto. The newly rebuilt modern MOL Arena Sosto stadium played host to the MOL Vidi FC - Ujpest FC league game on Wednesday evening.
The match kicked off at 19:00pm but there was a full program of entertainment ahead of the match. A stage was erected at the top of the stand at one corner of the arena and Wellhello put on a show for the supporters. There was also 400 dancers that ran onto the pitch to provide some very nice choreography. Local Mayor Andras Cser-Palkovics then addressed the fans inside the 14,200 seater stadium to welcome them before the national anthem rang out as the teams walked out on to the pitch.
Football then took over as manager Marko Nikolic brought in Zsombor Berecz to the starting eleven. Georgi Milanov also started as did Hungarian trio Vinicius-Patkai and Kovacs who had all been away on international duty. Stopira also travelled plenty of miles in the couple of weeks preceding the game but he was fit and ready to start.
The game kicked off with the first real chance on goal arriving after 5 minutes. Milanov got hold of the ball down the left and his shot only just went the wrong side of the far post. Vidi went even closer to taking the lead after 14 minutes.
A corner from Milanov was flicked on by Vinicius and Scepovic was so close to scoring but Litauszki stuck a foot out and the ball hit his own post. The visitors had a chance three minutes later. Burekovic found Beridze, who back heeled the ball, with Patkai trying to steal the ball, and Novothny attempting to turn on goal. Obinna also tried but he could not make clean contact with the ball.
The next clear chance came 20 minutes later with a move involving Berecz-Milanov-Nego, with the latter going down the right, as Scepovic overtook his man, but the ball in went behind him. The last minute of the first half saw a Zsoter ball curled towards goal, but Kovacsik was well placed to save and the half came to an end with the score at 0-0.
The pressure continued in the second period. The half was two minutes old when Stopira and then Patkai tried to find a man in a red and blue shirt in a dangerous position, but the defenders twice managed to clear the danger. Stopira reached a ball on 49 minutes and played it on to Milanov, who passed the ball into the middle for Kovacs to control, but he shot at Pajovics.
Stopira was again involved after 53 minutes as he rose to head a corner at the far post, which Pajovics was equal to. A shot from Kovacs did not find the target 3 minutes later, while Scepovic took advantage of a mistake by Litauszki, but Bojovics was able to get back to hit the ball out for a corner. That brought the first goal in the new stadium: Milanov took the corner kick and Juhasz was on hand to head the ball home (1-0).
The ninth corner kick again saw Milanov find Stopira, who managed to head, but Pajovics was alert to deal with it. Manager Nikolic made his first change with Nikolov replacing Berecz.
The visitors had a good chance to level after 81 minutes when a corner from Burekovic was met by Litauszki, whose powerful header was blocked. Milanov required treatment after 85 minutes and he was forced to come off. Hodzic replaced him for the remaining minutes.
There was no further change to the score with Roland Juhasz scoring the first ever goal at the new arena. The win sees Vidi move up to third in the table with a trip to Debrecen next up at the weekend.
Author: David Rechnitzer