Ferencváros came back from a deficit, with goals from Barnabás Varga, Kwabwena Owusu and Aleksandar Pesics, and started with a 3-1 victory against Csukaricski of Serbia in the opening round of the Football Conference League. The visitors took the lead in the 26th minute with a shot by Djordje Ivanovic, but the green and white team, who had been playing well throughout the game, turned it around before the break and gained a decisive advantage in the second half.


The three points of the match were decided by Pesics, who came on as a substitute, but even after that, FTC played with great enthusiasm and momentum, which could have won with a bigger margin, but in the end had to settle for a 3-1 success. in his first domestic meeting.

Stankovic mainly praised the attitude

Head coach Dejan Stankovic was extremely satisfied with the attitude of the Ferencváros players in the 3-1 win against Cukaricki in the opening round of the Football Conference League on Thursday.

"I'm mostly happy with the attitude, because that's the most important thing for achieving good results. We played exceptionally well"

- said the Serbian coach to MTI's inquiry, who called the atmosphere phenomenal at his first domestic meeting.

"There was a lot of pressure, but when we fell behind, neither the team nor the fans stopped, so we managed to turn it around together."

The specialist, who won the Champions League as a player, also spoke about the video referee after taking away a goal and a penalty for Ferencváros. As he explained, he was already used to VAR, so he was not nervous before the decisions, because 99 percent of the time, a good decision is made.

"I was very happy with Pesic's goal because he missed a lot due to injury. But Barnabás Varga also played great football. I count on both of them in the future," said Stankovic about his center forwards after the Serbian and Hungarian forwards were also effective.

His colleague, Igor Matic, congratulated the Hungarian champion and called his success well-deserved.

"We started well, in the first half hour we were able to play our own game, thanks to which we were in the lead, but Ferencváros made a big mistake. Mistakes are part of the game, and usually the team that makes the least mistakes wins. For the second half, I asked for more goal-oriented football and we tried to update it with substitutions, but we still didn't manage to equalize," assessed Matic, who also emphasized the "fantastic atmosphere and the beautiful stadium." He believed

it is always a pleasure to play football in such an atmosphere.

In two weeks, the Hungarian champion will be the guest of Italian Fiorentina, who started with a 2-2 draw as a guest of Belgian Genk in Group F and this year's finalist, in the second round. The first-placed team of the four will advance to the round of 16, and the second-placed team will meet one of the third-placed teams in the Europa League for a place in the round of 16.

MTI

Cover image: The members of the winning Ferencvárosi team played in the first round of the group stage of the football Conference League in the Ferencvárosi TC - Cukaricki match at the Groupama Arena on September 21, 2023.
Ferencváros defeated the Serbian team 3-1. MTI/Tibor Illyés