Litex Lovech confirmed their growing reputation as Bulgaria’s cup specialists after lifting the Bulgarian Cup for the second year running – their fourth win in nine years and seventh final in 11 years.

In recent years, the club’s stated ambition has been to challenge for the title, but Litex has rarely come close to repeating the feat achieved in 1998 and 1999, when massive investment from owner Grisha Ganchev paved the way for the club’s first two titles.

This year, the title push was supposed to come under new manager Stanimir Stoilov, who won two championships at Levski Sofia, but his first season in charge of Litex has proven a difficult one. Three draws and a loss in the first seven matches of the season effectively killed any title challenge, while a string of poor results against the other teams at the top of the table showed how much of a work in progress the team was.

With two matches to go, Litex can still secure third place in the table, but looks more likely to finish fourth or fifth. Yet, the decisive 3-0 win against Pirin Blagoevgrad in the cup final has saved Litex’ season. French forward Wilfried Niflore’s goal in the first half was the logical result of Litex’ domination, which continued after the break. Late goals from

Brazilian Doka Madureira and Kroum Bibishkov, a former Pirin youth trainee, sealed the final result.
Pirin manager Najim Shensoy blamed the result on biased refereeing – the allegation is so commonplace in Bulgarian football that Shensoy’s claims look unlikely to be followed up by an official enquiry.

With Cup in hand and European football secured for next season, Stoilov can be forgiven for letting his thoughts wander to next season.

"We definitely have more work to do in training and we need to add several quality players. We have found our style of play and if we manage to strengthen in the summer, we will be even better next year," Stoilov said after the match, before hastily adding that he still wanted a committed performance from the team in the last two league matches.

Ironically, Litex’ next opponents, title challengers CSKA Sofia, could end the season worse off as far as next season’s Europa League is concerned. As Bulgarian Cup winners,
Litex will slot into the play-off round of the competition that will replace the Uefa Cup. CSKA, trailing two points behind league leaders Levski Sofia, would have to start a round earlier if they finish runners-up in the league.

A win for Litex would secure the title for Stoilov’s old club Levski, but would also offer a first sign that next year, perhaps, Litex could finally start to match their title aspirations with fitting performances.