Bulgarian league leaders CSKA Sofia were beaten on their own turf by Minyor Pernik with a decisive 3-0 victory on October 25, their first defeat since the beginning of the season.
 
In the aftermath of the hammering, CSKA relinquished the top perch to Chermomorets with 26 points followed by the Reds with 25.
 
Until that ill-fated match for the vice champions, CSKA Sofia’s defence was almost impeccable as they had conceded only one goal in the domestic league, but this time they were punished by one of their own academy players, Roumen Trifonov, who scored a brace for Minyor while the visitor’s goal keeper Ivailo Ivanov managed to save a string of attempts, keeping his net dry and the hosts frustrated in the process.
 
Minyor opened their account through Nikolov in the 14^th minute, and then six minutes into the second half, the Pernik side made it two nil. CSKA attempted to change the situation and hurled men forward.
 
The Reds' coach Lyuboslav Penev made two substitutions with Todor Yanchev and Vlado Manchev coming on but in spite all the pressure, the Pernik defence was not going to crack. Finally, deep into injury time, Nikolov scored his second, making it 3-0 for the visitors.
 
"What happened is that if you don’t score, they will score. We did not play all that badly, but there are 11 men in the team and, as such,  all 11 must play, not just 5-6 of them," said CSKA Sofia head coach Lyuboslav Penev, quoted by Dnevnik daily.
 
"The sad truth is that there were players wearing the Red shirt who were not on the pitch today," he said.