LEVSKI (Sofia) won the Bulgarian Football Cup tournament, defeating "blood rivals" CSKA (Sofia) 2:1 in the final, played on May 25 at Vassil Levski national stadium in Sofia.
The "Blues" took the lead after 52 minutes, when Daniel Borimirov headed in the opening goal, and in the 75th minute Valeri Domovchiiski gave Levski a 2:0 advantage. CSKA managed to score only a consolation goal eight minutes before the final whistle, when Hristo Yanev converted a penalty.
Levski manager Stanimir Stoilov kept the promise he gave before the game and put into the starting line-up the three talented youngsters Domovchiiski, Milan Koprivarov, and Zhivko Milanov. "The Blues" played in the traditional 4-4-2 formation with Stanislav Angelov replacing Igor Tomasic at centre back.
Miodrag Jesic, head coach of CSKA, again put forward a 4-5-1 formation, with Evgeny Yordnov being the lone striker up front. Valentin Iliev managed to overcome his ankle injury, while Velizar Dimitrov had to settle for a place on the substitutes bench.
The beginning of the game did not impress the 11000 spectators, with both teams playing in slow tempo and trying to take control of the midfield area. Levski had a slight advantage in terms of ball possession, while CSKA relied mostly on counterattacks.
Yanev was the first player to fire a shot on target from a free kick in a dangerous position, but Levski goalkeeper Dimitar Ivankov had little trouble catching the ball.
The "Blues" responded in the 19th minute, when Koprivarov tested Evgeny Hmaruk in the CSKA goal, but the Moldovan keeper did well to keep his shot out. Both players were involved again in the best goal scoring opportunity for Levski five minutes before half time. Koprivarov found some free space in the penalty area, but his first time shot sent the ball straight into Hmaruk's hands.
Both teams started the second half in a frantic fashion. In the 51st minute CSKA skipper Todor Yanchev was sent off by referee Anton Genov for a second bookable offence. From the resulting free kick Dimitar Telkiiski delivered an inviting cross in the penalty area and Borimirov headed in the opening goal at the near post.
"The Reds" tried to switch to a more attacking formation, but down to 10 men they found it difficult to break the Levski defence. CSKA's best chance was a shot by defender Ibrahima Guy in the 72nd minute, which Ivankov managed to save with his feet.
From the resulting counterattack substitute Georgi Chilikov passed the ball in space to Domovchiiski, who coolly rounded Hmaruk and dispatched a powerful shot into the roof of the net with two CSKA defenders trying to clear the ball at the goal line.
The "Reds" however did not give up. Only nine minutes later they were awarded a penalty, when Elin Topuzakov was alleged to have fouled Guy in the penalty area and moments later was dismissed for a second yellow card. Yanev made no mistake from the spot and brought CSKA back in the game.
A superb save by Ivankov from Iliev's shot deep into injury time prevented a late equaliser for CSKA. At that time the "Reds" were already down to nine men, because just two minutes earlier Jordan Todorov had been sent off for a foul on Telkiiski, who managed to run clear of the CSKA defence.
This was the record 25th time Levski won the Bulgarian Cup.
"The results of our hard work throughout the season paid off today. I am very glad that this year we managed to integrate into the first-team young and talented players like Koprivarov and Domovchiiski. We are going to keep this club policy in the future as well. I want to teach my players how to play attacking and attractive football, because we will definitely need to score more goals when we enter the European competitions in the summer," said Levski manager Stoilov.
"We were unlucky to have a player sent off and to concede a goal in the space of just one minute. We deserved to lose, because we simply made too many stupid mistakes. I will demand more concentration from my players in the future. I cannot blame Yanev for the red card, although this was a turning point in the game. He played well today, but sometimes such things happen in football," said CSKA head coach Jesic.