Anderson Esiti, a midfielder for Ferencvaros, expressed faith that his Hungarian team would recover from their Europa League loss in the first leg and advance to the quarterfinals.
In the opening leg of their Europa League round of 16 match, the Green Eagles, as they are fondly called, lost 2-0 against Bayer Leverkusen.
That was not enough to keep Ferencvaros from falling to the Germans at the BayArena, despite the three-cap Nigerian international’s excellent effort for Ferencvaros.
On Thursday, March 18, Ferencvaros will play the second leg, and in order to advance to the next round, they must score at least two goals without giving up any goals in the match.
Ferencvaros’ impressive home performance this year, where they have won four of their previous five Europa League games, will inspire the supporters. They’ll be looking to beat the Bundesliga team and keep up their winning streak.
The 28-year-old midfielder from Nigeria is relying on the Budapest Puskás Aréna crowd to turn around the deficit, though, as he said at a press conference prior to the game.
According to Esiti, “This was not the result we wanted; it was quite an intense match. We also showed that we can create situations against them, which we will have to do in a week.”
“Our fans are always great, but you have to come to Budapest to experience what they are really like. Not all of them could be here now, but they will also be able to make the difference in the return match.”
Since playing for the Super Eagles in a 2-2 friendly draw against Ukraine in Kiev in September 2019, the aggressive defensive midfielder has not appeared for the team.