Just seven months after their last clash, Ferencváros were facing the Czech side Viktoria Plzeň in the Europa League again. Back in February, the Budapest green-and-whites won 1–0 in the first leg of the preliminary round of the knockout stage in the EL last season, but lost the return leg 3–0 away, thus Plzeň made it to the Round of 16.
Good news for Fradi: due to the peculiarities of the new league phase format (introduced last season in European club competitions), there will be no away game against Plzeň.
However, as the match actually started on the eve of Thursday, 25 September, the optimism did not last long for Fradi fans. In the 16th minute, Rafiu Durosinmi deftly got past experienced FTC centre-back Ibrahim Cissé, and rocketed the ball into the net from the edge of the box. To make matters worse, Cebrail Makreckis from Ferencváros got his—to be fair, well-deserved—second yellow in the 37th minute. Ferencváros went to half-time with a man and a goal down.
Head coach Robbie Keane tried to salvage the game with a series of substitutions. Despite his team’s grim prospects, it ended up working out for him. Gabi Kanichowsky, coming on at halftime, gave the assist to his fellow sub, Aleksandar Pešić, who came on in the 84th minute. Pešić headed home Kanichowsky’s cross from six yards in the very last second, in the 94th minute. The referee blew for full-time immediately after the goal—Plzeň never even got the chance to take the kick-off.
Interestingly enough, Ferencváros seemed to have posed more of an attacking threat to the Plzeň goal in the second half, one man short, than in the first half with a full line-up.
‘The equalizer could not have come at a better time… I am very happy about scoring a goal; it has helped my confidence a lot. As for the game, we started it badly, and then we had a player sent off as well. Despite that, we stuck together on the pitch, and we showed that our team is made up of strong personalities. We have really fought to the very end. We believed we could win a point,’ the hero of the night, Aleksandar Pešić, told Hungarian state media after the match.
Ferencváros will be playing KRC Genk in Genk, Belgium, in the Europa League next week.
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