Another fantastic season of the Fradi Cup is coming

Hungarian champion Ferencváros reached the main Europa League rankings for the third time in four years. The green-and-whites are looking forward to the Champions League group stage for 90 minutes poorly managed, but they should not be ashamed, because once again they have achieved a success that no Hungarian team has ever achieved. MOL Fehérvár came very close to a great feat, but the 1. FC Köln was still too big for Fehérvár.

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Field report from Dublin from our seconded staff member.

Four seasons, four appearances in the front row: this is how we can briefly summarize the recent history of the Fradi Champions Cup. The green-and-whites started in 2019 in the Europa League, then came an appearance in BL and, after another EL group last year, again this year the second series of cups awaits the green-and-whites.

This series of qualifiers was a real rollercoaster for Fradi, both for the game shown and for the mental effort of the other. Beating Kazakhstan’s Tobol Kosztanaj was a classic warm-up in the first round of Champions League qualifiers. The main difficulty of the duel was the terribly long and tiring journey to and from Kosztanaj. After 0-0 away, the Hungarian champions won 5-1 at the Groupama Arena and for a minute there was no doubt which team was the better team.

In the second round, however, the situation was exactly the opposite: it was enough to take a bus next to Slovan Bratislava, and instead you were there the dark memory of the match played in the Slovak capital 30 years agoand an opponent of orders of magnitude better than Tobol.

Although Stanyslav Cherchesov stressed in all his pre-match speeches that they have nothing to do with the past and that he does not want to make sport a politics for the world, the Hungarian players of the team and of course the fans knew very well what was in game and what prestige the two dueling teams had.

That’s why it was a real blow when Slovan was actually able to shoot ten minutes of good play at Groupama, and then the national players and fans had to watch the Slovak champion team celebrate with the handful of fans who made them. accompanied to Budapest. It was as if they had already celebrated their progress. However, to quote the manager of Fradi again: at that time there was only one game.

In the return leg in Bratislava, the roller coaster literally sent Fradi up in the sky. The Hungarian team was accompanied and acclaimed not by 150, but by 1,200 fans in the Slovak capital, which ended with a joyful celebration: Ferencváros compensated for all complaints and with an extraordinary 4-1 closed the past.

Cherchesov’s tactic worked great, Laidouni’s fours, Traoér, Zachariassen, Boli formed an almost perfect attack. There was no doubt that not only the team that played the best, but also the best team made it to the third round of the BL qualifiers.

Where Qarabag was waiting for Fradi, who kicked Polish champion Lech Poznan by scoring five goals at home in the first round, then also kicked the first Swiss FC Zürich by kicking five in two games. Compared to that, it was a feat of Fradi wearing a kimono after another grueling journey in inhumane weather conditions, they played a 1-1 draw, approaching the Azerbaijani victory.

But there was another roller coaster ride and the train ran downhill again on the home leg. Cherchesov’s usually carefully constructed tactic this time didn’t work for the Azerbaijani goalkeeper, who was defending the match of his life, and Qarabag’s two stars, Wadji and Kady, surpassed the Russian manager’s calculations.

We know it’s too late, this thought, but given Qarabag’s failed playoff match against Viktoria Plzen, we have to say that the Czech side would have had an easier task in the battle for the BL main table than the Azeris.

However, when Fradi was eliminated against the Azeris, the green-and-whites were transferred to the Europa League playoffs. Already at the time of the victory in Bratislava it was decided that Fradi would definitely be on the main table in one of the series, the only question from then on was where he should be staying. In the EL playoffs, the defeat of the Irish Shamrock Rovers created no problems, even with the fact that Fradi lost to Dublin, as after the 4-0 home win there was really no question about which team would pass.

What can Fradi expect in this Europa League?

Hardly easy games, we can nail this one. Gábor Kubatov, president of Fradi, and Pál Orosz, general manager of football Zrt., Say the next step in the case of Ferencváros would be if the team reached spring on the international stage. With the Conference League coming onto the scene, the possibilities are now even greater than before, but it won’t be easy at all. Fradi awaits the draw scheduled for Friday (ie today) at 13 from the 3rd hat, and the Hungarian champion could also find himself in a group with the strength of BL.

Here is the order of the seeds, with the UEFA coefficient determining the order of the seeds after the team names.

1. HAT
AS Roma (Italian, 100,000)
Manchester United (English, 105,000)
Arsenal (England, 80,000)
Lazio (Italian, 53,000)
Braga (Portugal, 46,000)
Crvena zvezda (Serbian, 46,000)
Dynamo Kyiv (Ukraine, 44,000)
Olympiakos Piraeus (Greek, 41,000)

2. HAT
Feyenoord (Netherlands, 40,000)
PSV (Netherlands, 33,000)
Rennes (France, 33,000)
Monaco (france, 26,000)
Real Sociedad (spain, 26,000)
Garabag (Azerbaijani, 25,000)
Malmö (Swedish, 23,500)
Ludogorets (Bulgarian, 23,000)

3. HAT
Sheriff (Moldovan, 22,500)
Real Betis (spain, 21,000)
Central Jutland (Dan, 19,000)
Bodö / Glimt (Norwegian, 17,000)
FERENCVÁROS (Hungarian, 15,500)
Union Berlin (German, 15,042)
Freiburg (German, 15,042)
Fenerbahce (Turkish, 14,500)

4. HAT
Nantes (France, 12,016)
HJK (fin, 8,500)
Sturm Graz (Austria, 7,770)
AEK Larnaca (Cyprus, 7,500)
Omonia (Cyprus, 7,000)
FC Zurich (Switzerland, 7000)
Union Saint-Gilloise (Belgian, 6,120)
Trabzonspor (Turkish, 5,500)

Before a tie, it is almost mandatory to play with the odds and the thought of “what if …”, so let’s do it now. From Fradi’s point of view, the group of dreams, that is the group of four, from which he could most likely move to the round of 16 of EL finishing in one of the first two places of the group, or he could be sold to the Conference League. as a third, in our opinion, it would be like this: Braga, Malmö, FERENCVÁROS, Omonia. Fradi could confidently aim for second place in this group.

It’s a lot harder to assemble a death squad this time around, there are so many bomb strong squads in almost every hat. From the first shirt, Arsenal, who made their Premier League debut with three wins in three games, now seem to be the strongest, while from the second shirt, PSV, Feyenoord, Real Sociedad, we choose Eindhoven, which although they lost to Rangers, they clearly showed they have a quality BL team. And in the 4th hat, the Turkish Trabzonspor has the lowest coefficient, but who misses a tiring Turkish tour, followed by a match in front of 40,000 delirious fans.

Whatever leads to a draw – in our opinion almost inevitable a champion team and a very strong second opponent – it is certain that Fradi has the possibility of obtaining new great successes if he manages to stabilize his defense. We have seen in almost all the duels that the attacking game is fine (even if when he is not on the field you notice the absence of Zachariassen), Laidouni and Esiti are a good couple in midfield, Ryan Mmaee starts to find himself more and more , but he and Tokmac Nguyen should also really be a game in which to regain pace and regain their old confidence.

MOL Fehérvár almost performed a miracle

There was a time when, after the first round of the European Cup, we could also cheer on three Hungarian teams. Not for four, because Puskás Akadémia beat Portuguese Guimaraes (0-3, 0-0) already in the second round of the Conference League qualifiers. However, Kisvárda eliminated Kajrat with two goals of 1-0, while Vidi greeted Gabala of Azerbaijan (4-1, 1-2). In the aftermath, Várda already had a good bite against Norwegian Molde, although the home win was a good job (0-3, 2-1), but Vidi easily eliminated Moldovan Petrolul Hincesti (5-0, 2 -1).

In the main table playoffs came sixth place in the previous Bundesliga announcement, 1. FC Köln, is a company that Once every 43 years there is an example! Vidi, back from a disadvantage, but cleverly exploiting his man advantage, beat the not a little arrogant German team away from home. Before the rematch, there was absolutely no hope of advancing.

But the miracle did not happen, even though Palkó Dárdai played sensationally, and at times the whole team was excellent, this time the Bundesliga routine – supported by the referee – won: Cologne won 3-0scored his first two goals from a corner kick, and then scored the penalty in extra time.

On the other hand, it was great to see that Vidi has the potential to follow Fradi’s lead and become a stable European Cup team after their weakest performance in recent years.

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