Women’s Jet-Sol Liga: MTK became domestic champions for the seventh time

MTK Hungária Women have sprung a huge surprise by defeating title-holders Ferencváros Women 1-0 in both legs of their Jet-Sol Liga Hungarian championship final tie to become domestic champions for the seventh time.

Last week’s single-goal victory away at Fradi shocked many who thought there would be no stopping the green-and-whites marching to a third straight league title, especially given that Ferencváros had won the last four encounters between the two sides including an 8-3 victory last month.

MTK took no heed of this though and exploded into life in the first leg of this final tie, creating two chances in the first ten minutes before defending bravely when Ferencváros wrested back the initiative after the first quarter of an hour. A goalless first half was followed by almost total dominance from Fradi in the second, a number of chance going begging and the woodwork being struck in addition to several excellent saves from MTK goalkeeper Réka Szőcs. There would be a twist in the tail of this game though, Lilla Nagy finishing off a late MTK counter-attack by somewhat fortunately lobbing the goalkeeper and seeing her shot deflect of a defender’s neck into an empty net. A stunned Ferencváros couldn’t respond and so went into yesterday’s second leg 1-0 down on aggregate.

The second leg was held a week later in the new Hidegkuti Nándor Stadion but followed very much the same pattern as the first meeting, Ferencväros dominating play while MTK looked to counter whenever possible. Both teams proved dangerous from set-plays, both striking the opposing crossbar in an ultimately goalless first 45 minutes.

It was crucial for Ferencváros to net at least one goal to keep their title dreams alive and they did their utmost to do it in the second period, camping in the MTK half of the pitch for much of it but their inaccuracy in front of goal meant the vital strike was not forthcoming. Instead, MTK caught their opponents with another late sucker-punch, Lilla Turányi meeting a right-wing free-kick and diverting the ball into the net with her back to give her team a priceless two-goal cushion.