Europa League: Varga’s Header Earns Ferencváros Three Points in Genk

Hungarian champions Ferencváros (FTC) won 1-0 away at Belgian side Genk in Thursday evening’s second round of the Europa League group stage thanks to a goal from Barnabás Varga. The green-and-white team played an organized game in Belgium and took all three points from Genk thanks to a header from the national team striker in the 44th minute.

Robbie Keane, head coach of Ferencváros, said his team’s performance in the second half was the main reason for their 1-0 away win over Genk. The 45-year-old Irish coach reiterated at the post-match press conference that their opponents were a very good team, which they proved during the match. “At the beginning, they got past us two or three times on the left, but the boys sensed this and changed tactics, O’Dowda also changed his position, and from then on, our situation improved in this regard,” said Keane.

Goal scorer Barnabás Varga (L) with Jonathan Levi. Photo: MTI/Szigetváry Zsolt

The FTC coach emphasized that Genk played particularly well in the first half, keeping possession of the ball excellently in midfield, hence Ferencváros had to weather this period, but was then able to really change the game after taking the lead before the break.

“I think the game changed after our goal, and in my opinion, we played excellent football in the second half. During the break, I told the guys to be brave in the second half, and it worked.

We controlled the game much better, regardless of the fact that we missed a penalty. We made a few tactical changes during the match, mainly involving Alex Tóth and Jonathan Levi, but the bottom line is that we owe this victory to our second-half performance,”

Keane said.

The winning Ferencváros players. Photo: MTI/Szigetváry Zsolt

His colleague, Genk manager Thorsten Fink, said, “that is football,” and recalled that they won a big match in the league on Sunday, but now they were one goal behind Ferencváros. “We played well in the first half, but we could not score, and we also made a mistake by letting Varga head the ball.

I said he was a very good player, especially dangerous with his head inside the box, and I specifically pointed this out to the guys. Despite this, we failed to stop him on one occasion,”

said the 57-year-old German coach, who believes his players were unable to play as well after the break as they did in the first half.

“Of course, we still had chances, we hit the crossbar, and on one occasion the opposing goalkeeper was lucky to make a save. But they made better and more effective use of their scoring chances, and that was the deciding factor this time,” added Fink.

The Budapest team can take heart from the fact that all three of Ferencváros’s future rivals suffered defeats in the second round of the Europa League on Thursday. Among the Hungarian champions’ upcoming opponents, Austrian side Red Bull Salzburg and Scottish side Glasgow Rangers both suffered their second defeats: the former lost 2-0 at home to French side Olympique Lyon, while the latter lost 2-1 away to Austrian side Sturm Graz. English side Nottingham Forest was also unable to improve on last week’s draw, suffering a 3-2 defeat at home to Danish side Midtjylland.

The Green and Whites, who are currently in 11th place with four points, will visit scoreless Salzburg in the third round on October 23.

After eight rounds of the group stage, the top eight teams will advance directly to the quarterfinals, while the teams finishing in 9th to 24th place will face a two-leg playoff for a spot in the last 16.

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