The English Premier League is not the only European football league where a crucial game in the championship title race was held on Sunday, 19 April. Minutes after the referee blew for full-time in the Manchester City vs Arsenal game—where City won 2–1, and got three points close to Arsenal with one game in hand—ETO FC Győr vs Ferencváros kicked off in Győr, Hungary.
It was an even tighter race in the Hungarian league for the title than in England, coming into the game. Győr and Ferencváros were tied on points on the table, with 59 each. In this competition, the primary tie-breaker is more wins, which favoured Fradi with an 18–5–6 record against Győr’s 17–8–4.
Ferencváros are the defending champion this season. In fact, the Budapest green-and-whites won the last seven championship titles in Hungary. Meanwhile, ETO’s last of four golds total is from 2013. Since then, the team even had to rebuild from the third division after the bankruptcy of their main sponsor, Quaestor Csoport, in 2015. They got to return to the top flight at last in 2024—and they did so in a surprisingly successful manner, finishing fourth and thus qualifying for the UEFA Conference League.
The home side got awfully close to opening the scoreline in just the second minute. However, after Algerian international—and thus potential FIFA World Cup 2026 participant—Nadhir Benbouali’s cross missed everyone in the middle, it found Nfansu Njie at the far post, but he failed to convert a clear shot from around 14 yards out.
Ferencváros hit a target from defender Mariano Gómez’s header after a free kick, but Samuel Petráš in the ETO goal stood his ground. On the other end, Dénes Dibusz was forced to pull off an incredible save after fellow Hungarian international Szabolcs Schön’s close-range header.
It was quite an intense game, one befitting the stakes, with a total of seven shots hitting the targets in the first half alone: two from ETO strikers and five from Fradi strikers, but no goal.
It took 82 minutes of play to break the deadlock. Hungarian youngster Kevin Bánáti had just come off the bench seven minutes prior, and he tucked away a rebound from Dibusz’s save after a corner. There was some controversy about whether Njie had obstructed the goalkeeper’s view in an offside position, but the goal was eventually allowed to stand by VAR.
Since no one found a way to net after, the 20-year-old Bánáti scored the goal that may very well prove to be the title decider for this season of the Hungarian championship.
Győr is now three points ahead of Ferencváros with three more games to go. The last time it was not Fradi that topped the league was in 2018, when Videoton FC from Székesfehérvár became champions—now, ETO FC Győr are in a prime position to claim the title from Fradi!
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