First leg finished 3-3 , the Hungarian champions raced into a 2-0 lead early in the second half, but needed a late equaliser to go home all square after the Norwegian side had turned things around. A draw, as long as it is not 3-3 or higher will suffice for the home side, which makes it very difficult for Molde to progress without winning , they will come with a positive mindset and might have to gamble at some stage if the goal doesn't come early, or do so almost immediately if they fall behind and then this could get as open as the first leg.

 

It is the home team I want to discuss as Molde are dangerous and will be very motivated with such a huge prize at stake, but after progressing from 2016-19 they look to have gone backwards a little and have already lost 7 times in 19 Eliteserien starts (lost just 4 last season and 7 times in the whole 2018 campaign) and are at a bit of a low point right now, having not won in 5 and having kept just a  single clean sheet in six games. Of course, they are doubtless distracted by the Champions League , but there it is and I also felt they were a little one dimensional in the first leg with their main threat from crosses into the box.

 

Ferencvaros are ambitious and former Dynamo kiev striker Serhiy Rebrov has been in charge for two years, how much fun were Kiev to watch when he was in tandem with Andriy Shevchenko and they were terrorising some of Europe's big names ? He left a very big salary in Saudi Arabia at Al-Ahli to come here, accepting a much lower wage , but a big incentive contract and he will get a massive £2.5m bonus if his team progress this evening, so he will be "up" for this ! I suspect that the players also have a good bonus written into all their contracts too, albeit not quite at Rebrov's level. In the season before the Ukraine hero took charge, Ferencvaros finished second in the league on 66 points, they won it by 13 points with 74 in 18-19 and again by 13 points with a total of 76 in 19-20, improving each season.

 

In last season's Champions league campaign they beat Ludogorets a team we know well and who are experienced and talented in European terms and then lost quite heavily to a strong Dinamo Zagreb in R3 of qualifying. They then qualified for the Europa League group stage and finished third in a decent section, gaining huge experience for nights like this. This season they beat Djurgarden 2-0 in R1, Celtic in Glasgow 2-1 (the perennial Scottish champions earliest CL exit in 15 years) and then had a R3 rematch with Dinamo Zagreb and this time won 2-1. Again, clearly progressing season on season in Europe too. They should be at peak fitness levels now with this their eighth competitive start of 20-21 ( 6-7 games or so is usually considered what you need under your belt to be fully match fit) and they were given the weekend off by their league to solely prepare for this. Molde played a league game three days after the first leg and two days before flying to Budapest, a 2,400km trip south.

 

Ferencvaros have a multi national squad and just the goalkeeper and one outfield player in the first leg were Hungarian, a couple more might have Hungarian passports. Standout performer in qualifying has been big money signing Myrto Uzuni an Albanian winger and he has the quality to trouble Molde again, the hosts also have a couple of "Norwegians" in their squad and probably know more about Molde than vice versa. They can also play on grass, as opposed to the artificial surface in Norway and whilst there will be no crowd, that did not hamper Ferencvaros against Dinamo and this remains a difficult venue for visiting teams and a bit "old school" in regard to the kind of welcome away teams get.

 

Rebrov said he did not feel that all his team gave 100% in the first leg and that there was "more to come". Franck Boli who was top scorer in Eliteserien in 2018 with 17 goals and in a struggling team , scored the opener in Molde and he was asked about the difference between the two leagues and answered that physical abilities were more important in Norway. He added: "We are fighting to represent the club and country at the highest European level, we are now at the gates of the group stage, when I arrived here I didn't think that would happen so soon, but I’m not at all surprised now since we’re a good team with a good coach."

 

The draw is a concern, but there will be space at some stage,  I like improving teams and Ferencvaros very much make that criteria.