After Feyenoord's cancellation, Club quickly sought and found a new opponent to conclude the practice camp in Marbella with: Hungarian Puskás Akadémia.
History
The club, from the northern Hungarian town of Felcsút, was founded in 2005 as a youth academy for Videoton FC/Fehérvár, another Hungarian first division club that has played European sides against KRC Genk and AA Gent in the past. The club was named after Ferenc Puskás, one of the greatest players in Hungarian soccer history. The club began to stand on its own two feet and experienced remarkable growth. It was surprisingly able to promote to the Hungarian First Division in 2013. This made the club the first youth team in Hungary to advance to the highest level. It could stay in the Nemzeti Bajnokság (name Hungarian First Class) until 2016, but after 1 year in Second Class, it already returned to the highest level. In the 2019-20 season it was able to stunt with third place in the final standings. The first European adventure already ended in the first round of the UEFA Europa League against Sweden's Hammarby. Last season, Puskás AFC even became vice champions. It finished behind Ferencváros, but stayed ahead of parent club Fehérvár!
Strong performance
Also this season, Puskás Akadémia FC is back in the top 3. It is only 4 points behind champion Ferencváros at the halfway point.
In the UEFA Europa Conference League, the club was able to advance one round by eliminating Finnish Inter Turku. But in the 2nd preliminary round, Latvian Rīgas FS was too strong, the club facing AA Gent in the next round.
Team
For the third season, Zsolt Hornyák is PAFC's coach. The 48-year-old Slovak coach was previously active in Armenia, Malta, Russia and the Czech Republic. So since 2019 he has been very successful with the Puskás Akadémia.
With defenders Zsolt Nagy and Csaba Spandler, goalkeeper Balász Tóth (not to be confused with KRC Genk's former midfielder) and striker Krisztián Géresi, it has 4 Hungarian A internationals, but none of them were active at Euro 2020. There is also a Czech international, defender Patrizio Stronati and a Romanian international, midfielder Alexandru Baluta.
Well-known players are:
- the Dutch striker Luciano Slagveer (ex-Sporting Lokeren)
- Belgian Algerian midfielder Mohammed Mezghrani (ex-Standard youth player, who played at KV Turnhout and KFC Duffel)
- defender Roland Szolnoki (Hun), the team's captain, eliminated KAA Gent with Videoton in the UEL preliminary round and faced KRC Genk in the group stage.
- Attacker Jakov Puljiv (Cro), eliminated in the 2019 UEL preliminary round with HNK Rijeka (Cro) by KAA Gent.
Top shooter this season is Czech midfielder Jakub Plsek with 5 goals. Assist kings are Rome midfielder Alexandru Baluta and Hungarian striker György Komáromi. They set 4 times a teammate on the way to a goal.
First meeting
Needless to say, this is the very first encounter between Club Brugge and Puskás Akadémia. In the past, Club played Europe against these other Hungarian clubs: Debreceni VSC (3rd round UEFA Cup in 2004 and UEL preliminary round in 2012) and Újpest FC (2nd round Jaarbeursstedenbeker in 1969 and 1st round UEFA Cup in 1998).
These 5 Hungarian players played for Blauw-Zwart in the past:
- defender Laszlo Balint, 57 matches between 1979 and 1981. Champion with Club in 1980.
- goalkeeper Sandor Baranyai, 17 matches between 1963 and 1964.
- defender László Disztl, 125 matches between 1989 and 1994. With Club champion in 1990 and 1994 and cup winner in 1991
- midfielder Lajos Kü, 2 matches between 1977 and 1978. Played in the European Cup 1 final against Liverpool.
- midfielder Istvan Magyar, 32 matches between 1980 and 1982.
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