Honvéd began brightly, looking the more likely side to score in the opening quarter of an hour, but the Romanians became more dangerous as the half wore on. Louis Munteanu and Filip Ilie both came close to opening the scoring before Hagi Academia eventually took the lead in the 19th minute when Illie capitalised on a mistake from Lóránt Fazekas and scored from the edge of the box.

The Hungarian side squandered an opportunity to draw level four minutes before the break, Alex Szabó heading a cross from the right into the path of Dominik Kovács whose shot went wide of goal. Honvéd were also lucky to not be two behind at half-time, however, Munteanu’s spectacular scissor kick from a Darius Grosu cross from the right going over the bar not long before the half-time whistle.

The Romanian side could have increased their advantage at the start of the second half when Constantin Grameni beautifully picked out Munteanu with a left-wing cross, only for the latter to shoot wildly over the crossbar with only goalkeeper Megyeri left to beat. In the 41st minute, Barnabás Németh's effort on goal brought back memories of Munteanu's first-half overhead effort but, like his Romanian counterpart, he missed the target with his acrobatic attempt. Munteanu made no mistake with his next chance though, the Constanza team's number nine surging in from the right wing, beating Fazekás and firing the ball into the far corner to double his team's lead.

Munteanu was the best player on the pitch at this point and he further demonstrated his attacking prowess a minute later when he regained possession, exploded forward and again slotted the ball clinically into the net to hand the Hagi Academy a three-goal cushion. This was partially reduced to just two when substitute Dániel Németh finished off a swift Honvéd attack to make the score 3-1. The Kispest club couldn't recover any further though, so after yesterday's victory over Real Madrid they have come down to earth within 24 hours courtesy of today's defeat to their Romanian rivals.

PHOTO GALLERY

XII. Puskás–Suzuki Cup, Group B

Budapest Honvéd 1–3 Academia Hagi (HT: 0–1)

Felcsút, Puskás pitch, 7 June, 2019

Referee: Molnár A. (Aradi, Kiss B.)

Goalscorers: HON: Németh D. (55.), HAG: Ilie (19.), Munteanu (49., 50.)

Honvéd: Megyeri G. – Buna, Fazekas L., Földesi, Sikorszki (Török K., 52.) – Szabó A. (Molnár R., 43.), Eördögh (Csányi Á., 52.), Kovács D., Bocskay – László D. (Kocsis D., 55.), Németh B. (Németh D., 43.).

Academia Hagi: Stanciulescu – Grosu, Danuleasa, Buta, Lazar – Voicu (Malaele, 43.), Birzu – Ilie (Mihai, 48.), Bodisteanu (Pocol, 43.), Grameni (Popescu, 51.) – Munteanu (Sirbu, 51.).