With the tie on a knife edge after last week’s goalless stalemate, Ludogorets thought they’d nosed in front inside six minutes, when Son sent a free-kick into the area and Ivaylo Chochev headed inside Denes Dibusz’s right-hand post. However, a VAR overturn for offside doused the celebrations and gave Ferencvaros a reprieve on that occasion.
Their reaction wasn’t particularly rousing at first, with Cebrail Makreckis seeing two shots blocked as Ludogorets looked for opportunities to hit the Hungarians with a sucker punch.
The first-half stats made for a roughly even read, but after Ludogorets’ Edvin Kurtulus missed when receiving a ball on the edge of the box, it was the most important stat of all which turned in Ferencvaros’ favour shortly before HT. A Bence Otvos cross evaded Ludogorets keeper Hendrik Bonmann and fell to Barnabas Varga, who headed into the bottom-left corner for his third goalscoring UCL qualification appearance in four this term.
With no HT substitutes thrown into the mix, the early second-half minutes held the same attritional feel. It was certainly not shaping up to be a clash for the purists, but Makreckis could count himself somewhat unlucky when putting an effort just wide of the left post.
Lenny Joseph also felt the pangs of frustration just three minutes later, when he beat his marker inside the box and drew an impressive reflex save from Bonmann with his shot towards the bottom-left corner.
Sensing that the tie was slipping away, Ludogorets manager Rui Mota was the first to switch it up, with a double change that included Mounir Chouiar’s fresh legs up front.
However, Ferencvaros remained the more potent-looking side, and Otvos came within an inch of sealing their progress in spectacular fashion, as he hit the bar with an ambitious shot from distance. By contrast, there was nothing too troubling about efforts in response from Anton Nedyalkov and Caio Vidal, both of which were easily gathered by Dibusz.
Ferencvaros boss Robbie Keane’s 75th-minute decision to bring on Zsombor Gruber in place of Joseph proved to be a masterstroke, as within two minutes of his introduction, his freshness allowed him to capitalise on a melee inside the box and prod the ball to Varga. He slotted into the net to complete his first double since February. Gabor Szalai then rounded off the scoring on 86’ when he headed in via a corner from Alex Toth.
This landslide win puts Ferencvaros just one tie away from only their second UCL main draw appearance this century - five years after their most recent one. Meanwhile, Ludogorets’ wait to get that far will now bleed into a second decade.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Barnabas Varga (Ferencvaros)