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Trabzonspor suffered a 1-0 home defeat to Hungary's Ferencvaros on Thursday in the first leg of their UEFA Europa League play-off round tie, with the match turning on a first-half header and ending in more misfortune for the Turkish side when a defender was sent off in stoppage time.
Kristoffer Zachariassen scored the only goal of the match in the 17th minute, meeting a cross from Oliver Nagy to head the ball into the bottom left corner past Trabzonspor goalkeeper Andre Onana. The result leaves Trabzonspor needing to overturn a one-goal deficit in the second leg to advance to the Europa League's league phase.
The match was played before 32,569 spectators at Papara Park, with Croatian official Igor Pajac serving as referee, assisted by compatriots Bojan Zobenica and Ivan Mihalj.
Despite trailing from early in the contest, Trabzonspor generated several scoring opportunities as the match progressed. In the 49th minute, Mohamed Salah's shot from the right side of the penalty area, set up by Ruslan Malinovskyi, beat goalkeeper Denes Dibusz but rolled just wide of the post.
Trabzonspor came closest to equalizing in the 55th minute, when Paul Onuachu's header from a Noah Saviolo cross struck the crossbar and then Dibusz's back before Salah headed the rebound toward goal, only for a Ferencvaros defender to clear it off the line. Wagner Pina also tested Dibusz in the 70th minute, combining with Salah before his effort from a tight angle was pushed away for a corner.
Trabzonspor made attacking changes at halftime, bringing on Malinovskyi and Aral Simsir for Benjamin Bouchouari and Umut Nayir, and later introduced Ernest Muci in place of Saviolo as the home side searched for a way through Ferencvaros' defense.
The night worsened for Trabzonspor in the sixth minute of second-half stoppage time, when defender Chibuike Nwaiwu was shown a straight red card for violent conduct following a foul on an opponent, leaving the home side to finish the match a man down.
Ferencvaros also picked up disciplinary trouble over the course of the match. The Hungarian club had five players booked: Bamidele Yusuf in the 29th minute, Zachariassen in the 43rd, Oliver Nagy in the 50th, Attila Osvath in the 89th and Gavriel Kanichowsky in first-half stoppage time of the second half.
The Europa League play-off round is the final qualifying stage before the competition's league phase, with the winner of the two-legged tie advancing and the loser dropping into the Europa Conference League. Thursday's match in Trabzon represented the first leg of the tie between the two clubs.
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