Henry Wingo earned an assist as Ferencvaros cruised into the next round of Champions League qualification, while Kyle McLagan and Vikingur’s narrow loss to Malmö saw them drop into the Conference League.
Ferencvaros 5 – 1 Tobol Kostanay (agg. 5-1)
Henry Wingo returned to the Ferencvaros defense on Wednesday night, as the team blew out their Kazakhstani visitors Tobol by a four-goal margin to easily reach the next round of Champions League qualification.
A draw at Tobol in the first leg meant that the Hungarians only needed to score a home victory to advance. They left nothing to chance, effectively booking their place just over 20 minutes after the opening whistle, and adding a pair of late goals as the icing on the cake.
After only seeing late substitute minutes in Kazakhstan one week ago, Wingo returned to the starting lineup, and added a late assist to help complete the victory.
Following a short corner in the fourth minute, Eldar Civic played a short one-two with Tokmac Nguen on the right, before firing a cross to the edge of the six-yard box, perfectly placed for Adama Traoré’s header past the helpless Tobol keeper.
Five minutes later, Wingo broke forward with Kristoffer Zachariassen and laid off a pass to Nguen in the middle with space to shoot, however the Norwegian made a mess of things and wasted the chance.
Nguen made up for his mistake in the 17th minute, threading the needle with a fine through-ball to Adama Traoré, whose low shot from the left rolled past the keeper for the 2-0 advantage.
Four minutes later, the hosts put the game on ice, with Aissa Laidouni one-timing Traoré’s lay-off from 21 yards out to the lower right corner for his team’s third goal.
Tobol did pull one back in the 23rd mintue, with Zoran Tosic breaking into the right side of the area and finding Igor Sergeev in the middle for a quick finish. However, apart from temporarily stopping the bleeding, the goal did little to turn their fortunes.
They thought they had pulled back a second in the 72nd minute, only to have the goal called back for an offside infraction, then were punished for their momentary hope just seconds later.
Wingo attempted a shot from close to 30 yards that was blocked inside the area, however Zachariassen was first to recover the ball, and slid a cross towards the middle which Fortune Bassey easily redirected over the goal-line.
Matters when from bad to worse for the visitors when substitute Serikzhan Muzhikov earned a pair of yellow cards in the space of four minutes, leaving his team to face the final eight minutes plus injury time a man down.
Predictably, they paid a price, with Wingo being the trigger man for the final Ferencvaros goal just after the end of regulation.
The American received the ball deep in his own territory and stormed up the right flank into the danger area. After playing a quick give-and-go with Aissa Laidouni to advance into the 18-yard box, he tapped the ball over towards Bassey in the middle, for an emphatic finish to complete the 5-1 win.
The Hungarians will have a tougher opponent in the upcoming second round, as they face Slovakian champions Slovan Bratislava, with the first leg in Budapest next week.
Notes
Kyle McLagan watched on as Vikingur were narrow eliminated from Champions League qualification by Swedish champions Malmö FF. The game ended a 3-3 draw, giving the Swedes the 6-5 aggregate edge. While the American was listed on Vikingur’s bench, several media reports out of Iceland have indicated that he is currently unavailable to play due to having suffered a shoulder injury in a recent league game. Malmö attacker Romain Gall was not included in their squad for the game.
Malmö advance to face Lithuanians Žalgiris in the next round, while Vikingur will face Welsh champions The New Saints in the second round of Europa Conference League qualification.
