Ferencvárosi pull away late to beat Torreense 4-1
Ferencvárosi beat Torreense 4-1 in the Europa League, but the match was level for long spells and the margin only arrived in the final ten minutes.
By Harvey Watkins,
Ferencvárosi beat Torreense 4-1 at the Groupama Arena (Ferencváros Stadion) on Thursday in Matchday 3 of the Europa League. A three-goal margin suggests a comfortable evening, and by the end it was one. For most of the match, though, the contest was far closer than the final score implies. Two of the home side's four goals came in the last ten minutes, and one of those was an own goal.
How the goals came
- 20 min: Bamidele Yusuf (Ferencvárosi), 1-0
- 23 min: Manu Pozo (Torreense), 1-1
- 58 min: Mariano Gómez (Ferencvárosi), 2-1
- 80 min: Mohamed Ali Diadié own goal (Torreense), 3-1
- 89 min: Krisztián Lisztes (Ferencvárosi), 4-1
A quick reply and a level interval
Bamidele Yusuf gave Ferencvárosi the lead after 20 minutes, but it lasted only three. Manu Pozo equalised for Torreense in the 23rd minute, and that was the last goal of the first half. The sides went in at 1-1, and on the scoreline alone there was nothing to separate them at the interval.
That swift equaliser is worth noting. Torreense did not let the opening goal settle into a pattern. For the remainder of the first half, the visitors were level away from home in a European fixture, which is not nothing.
The lead restored, then extended
Mariano Gómez put Ferencvárosi back in front in the 58th minute. Unlike the first lead, this one held. Even so, at 2-1 with ten minutes remaining, the outcome was not settled. A single Torreense goal would have levelled the match, and the margin offered the home side no real comfort.
What changed that was the own goal. Mohamed Ali Diadié turned the ball into his own net in the 80th minute, making it 3-1 and removing most of the doubt. Krisztián Lisztes then added a fourth in the 89th minute to complete the scoring.
Reading the scoreline
The fairest summary is that Ferencvárosi were the side who kept scoring and Torreense were the side who stopped. After Pozo's equaliser, the visitors did not score again, while the home side found the net three more times. Ferencvárosi also spread their goals across three different scorers, with Yusuf, Gómez and Lisztes each finding the net, rather than relying on one player.
Some caution is still due. The final score owes a good deal to the last ten minutes, and an own goal and a goal in the 89th minute did much to turn a one-goal win into a three-goal one. Ferencvárosi deserve credit for being ahead when those chances came. It would be stretching things, though, to read the margin as a measure of how far apart the sides were for the bulk of the evening.
As with any single result, it says more about the night than about either team's wider prospects. For Ferencvárosi, it was a win built patiently and finished emphatically. For Torreense, it was a match that stayed within reach for 80 minutes before getting away from them.