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Still a Chance for Ferencváros in Conference League After Double Victory in Qualifiers

MTI-Hungary Today 2023.08.18.

After a 6-1 away win, Ferencváros beat Maltese side Hamrun Spartans 2-1 in the return leg at home on Thursday to progress from the third round of the UEFA Europa Conference League qualifying stage with a double victory.

The Maltese started with a quick goal, but the Hungarian champions equalized before the break through a header from Adama Traoré. The winner goal came from the Hungarian championships’ top scorer Barnabás Varga in the 69th minute.

In the second half of the game, the home fans voiced their opinion in English about last week’s tragic fan clashes in the Greek capital between Croatian and Greek fans, where an AEK Athens fan was stabbed to death. The sign at the match in Budapest read: “Hooligans are not murderers, murderers are not hooligans! Say no to guns!”

In the fourth and final round of qualifying in the Conference League, Ferencváros will face Zalgiris Vilnius for a place in the group stage.

After a 3-1 home defeat, the Lithuanian side was beaten 5-0 away by Sweden’s Häcken in their Europa League qualifier.

Ferencváros midfielder Dávid Sigér (waving) Photo: MTI/Illyés Tibor

“It is positive that we got the double victory. However, we could not achieve not getting a goal, but we still deserved to win despite the fact that we were not effective up front today,” said head coach Csaba Máté, who rested several key players, including goalkeeper Dénes Dibusz and defender Cristian Ramirez. In connection with that, he said that this was not a match to take risks, so this time there was a chance to rest the players with minor or major problems. The coach explained that the next match against Zalgiris will have some difficult circumstances, such as playing on artificial turf away from home.

Ferencváros fans dressed in the official green and white colors of the team. Photo: MTI/Illyés Tibor

On Thursday night, another Hungarian team, DVSC from Debrecen, was also involved in the Conference League qualifiers. However, that team failed to qualify for the fourth round qualifiers as they lost 5-0 at home to Rapid Wien of Austria on Thursday, after a goalless draw away from home on the week before. That leaves just one Hungarian team, Ferencváros in contention for the international stage.

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Via MTI, Featured photo via MTI/Illyés Tibor


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