Videoton play out a friendly 1-1 draw with Grozny

Videoton shared a 1-1 draw with Russian league side Grozny on Wednesday afternoon. In lovely sunshine, and on a near perfect playing surface, the conditions were ideal for both teams to play out this friendly in Belek. Vidi are currently in the middle of a week long training camp in Turkey, as they continue their build up to the spring season.

The first chance of the match arrived after 6 minutes to the red and blues of Fehervar. Nikolics did well to step out on the left, before shooting from a tight angle, which the Russian keeper did well to save. Balazs Toth played Nikolics through a couple of minutes later, but he was too quick to get on the end of that pass, and the assistant referee flagged for offside. Toth was seeing plenty of the ball in the middle, and another of his good balls found Gyurcso, who allowed the ball to bounce before shooting with his right foot, but his effort went over the bar.

However, the referee blew for offside after Nikolics pounced to hit the ball in off the post. It seemed a totally valid goal from the Videoton striker. Vidi were also enjoying more of the possession as the match went on. However, the Russians took a 41st minute lead. The goal came from the penalty spot, after the match official judged that Grozny's player was brought down by Vinicius on the left. Their captain, Katsaev stepped up to place the ball into the right hand corner. There was still time for a Toth shot, which Arbi dealt with comfortably. Neither manager made changes at the break with Grozny enjoying a single goal lead.

Nikolics found himself on the floor twice in the opening exchanges of the second half. There was no caution following the first challenge, but the referee showed a yellow card for the second. That seemed to draw both teams into a bit of pushing and shoving, with the match carrying on shortly after. Kovacs had a lovely shot on goal after 55 minutes, which their keeper needed two chances to hold on to. Young Kovacs was the main man a minute later, when he stepped out on the right, and he tried to find Nikolics with a low ball, but the pass got tangled up around his feet. Vidi drew level with a great strike from Mitrovics, which gave their keeper no chance on the hour mark. It was no more than Videoton deserved and it brought them back into this pre-season friendly.

Brachi hit a great effort, which blasted the post on 67 minutes, from one of his trademark free kicks. Vidi saw more of the ball in the remaining 20 minutes. Nikolics went closest to winning it for Vidi, but the several changes made by both managers also slowed things down. There was a pleasing moment with ten minutes left, when Stopira came on following his long injury. That came after recent signings Gomes and Alvarez also tasted their first bit of action in a Vidi shirt. Grozny nearly stole the winner in the 87th minute through Murikhin, but he ended up hitting it wide of the mark. Videoton played well in this friendly game, creating plenty of chances and going closer to winning the match. The final result was a 1-1 draw, but that could have been so much different had Nikolics' chance not been flagged for offside.