THE The Torreense epic will see, at the end of this Wednesday afternoon, a new episode that is expected to be one of glory. This time, the opponent is called Ferencváros, and the venue is the Groupama Arena, in Budapest, in a match counting for the third round of the Europa League league phase.
The defending champions of the Portuguese Cup, remember, made their debut in this competition in the best possible way, with a historic victory over Lillestrom, at the Arasen Stadion, by 1-2, and were on the verge of doing theirs again, against Sunderland, at the Dr. Magalhães Pessoa Stadium, but ended up being defeated by Sunderland, by 1-2.
Now, ahead, Luís Tralhão’s men will face an opponent much more accustomed to these wanderings, who still only knows what it means to win, in what is the second biggest club competition on the Old Continent, after having beaten Celtic, by 1-3, and Viktoria Plzen, by 2-1.
This means that the Hungarians have won six points out of a possible six, which leaves them, at least for now, at the top of the general classification, along with Juventus, Bayer Leverkusen, Benfica, Besiktas, Bournemouth, Omonia, Olympique Lyon, Sunderland and Olympiacos.
The Portuguese, on the other hand, have three points in the ‘bag’, meaning they share 15th place with Crystal Palace, AC Milan, Jagiellonia Balystok, OFI Crete, AZ Alkmaar and Salzburg, and keep alive the ‘dream’ of qualifying for the next stage of the competition, a scenario that many considered unthinkable.
Ferencváros-Torreense’s starting whistle is scheduled for 5:45 pm (Mainland Portugal time) and will be officiated by Frenchman Jérôme Brisard, who will lead a refereeing team made up of assistants Alexis Auger and Aurélien Berthomieu, fourth referee Eric Wattellier, VAR Mathieu Vernice and AVAR Nicolas Rainville.
Coaches in direct speech
Balázs Borbély
Torreense furthest back?: “I expect a very defensive and well-organized team. We are preparing for that and I believe we will play much more effectively than in the last game in Kisvárda. I don’t expect them to adopt a similar approach to Plzen or our previous opponents. I think they will lower the lines. The results were not good in the games against teams in the same category of the Hungarian league, but there were many positive aspects that we want to see again.”
Last game deserves reflection: “At the time, I thought that, after 2-0, we had to manage the game in order to avoid losing the ball and not giving the opponent opportunities. That’s not what happened, but we’ve already spoken about the matter with the players and I believe that these mistakes will not happen again.”
Carlos Simões
Complicated mission in Hungary: “We know that they are one of the biggest teams in Hungary, that in the last eight years they have been champions seven times and these are indicators of the club’s greatness. It will be a very difficult challenge, but it is one more and all the games will be very difficult for us”.
Recipe is the same: “We will continue to work as hard as possible to be able to show a little more of what makes us come to participate in the Europa League. Let them not see us as a team that comes from the II League, but rather as a team that is very competent”.
Latest results
Ferencváros: VEEVE
Torreense: VEVDD
Last eleven
Ferencváros: Dániel Radnóti; Attila Osváth, Toon Raemaekers, Mariano Gómez, Callum O’Dowda; Marius Corbu, Habib Maiga, Kris Zachariassen; Jonathan Levi, Daniel Arzani and Krisztián Lisztes.
Torreense: Lucas Paes; Jonathan Mutombo, Volnei Feltes, Mohamed Diadié, Javi Vázquez; Amine Oudrhiri, Alejandro Alfaro, João Marques; Manuel Pozo, Karem Zoabi and Malik Aboubakari.
Absences
Ferencváros: Bence Otvos, Matus Bero and Franko Kovacevic (injured).
Torreense: Adama Baradji (injured).
