19.02.2003 - Cup of Bulgaria: 1/4 finals, 1st legs
The Bulgarian football season at professional level restarted today with three of the four first games in the quarterfinals of the Cup of Bulgaria. The fourth game in which Litex (Lovech) should have hosted Slavia (Sofia) was postponed for the 4th of March, after an agreement between both clubs. All the three matches played today finished with narrow wins by one goal and preserved the intrigue for the return legs.
Without doubt the biggest surprise came at the “Bulgarska armia” stadium where CSKA had to put in a lot of effort to overcome the only 2nd level side that remains in the tournament – Makedonska slava (Simitli) – with a 3:2 win. The reds got to an early goal and it looked like they will have an easy time against the Simitli team, but with goals in the very end of the first half and shortly after the start of the second, Makedonska slava, who demonstrated a playing performance of which every team in the Premier PFL can be fond of, managed to completely turn the match on its head. The reds started to really turn the pressure on only after this remarkable turnaround was achieved, and in the end managed to score two goals to avoid a major upset. However, it’s all to play for in the return leg in Simitli, which can be even more interesting, especially taking into account the valuable two away goals achieved by Makedonska slava.
Another tie met two clubs who like Makedonska slava are tipped as the underdogs in the competition – Chernomorets (Burgas) and Marek (Dupnitsa). In front of a small crowd in Burgas, the hosts from Chernomorets managed to get a slim one-goal advantage in the very final minute of the game, but it will be a big challenge for the Burgas players to hold on to it in the return leg at the hostile “Bonchuk” stadium in Dupnitsa.
In what was expected to be the derby of the day Levski (Sofia) also managed to get a clear one-goal lead before the second leg in their match against Lokomotiv (Plovdiv) at the “Georgi Asparuhov” stadium. The blues played well in the first half, when they got to their goal, and could have actually made their advantage more comfortable, but in the second half the quality of the mach dropped considerably and these two teams too will have to decide everything in the second leg.
12.02.2003 - Bulgaria - Hungary abandoned
Bulgaria - Hungay 1:0
Bulgaria and Hungary couldn’t complete the friendly between them, because of absolutely appalling weather conditions in the Cypriot city of Larnaka, and both coaches had their plans ruined, as they couldn’t get almost anything out of this game.
The match was in doubt throughout the day, as contrary to yesterday, this one provided the two teams with an incredible storm over Larnaka, something very uncharacteristic for Cyprus. Just before the match, the rain even turned to snow for a while, all of this combined with a wind of incredible force.
Despite that, the match did go underway at the waterlogged pitch of the Ammochostos stadium. The play was at quite slow pace, because the two teams had great difficulty controlling the ball, not only because of the wet surface, but also of the wind that swirled it any way it wanted once it became airborne. The Bulgarian team proved to adapt to the adverse conditions better than their Hungarian counterparts, and had the advantage in play during the first and only half of the match. They managed to put in some dangerous attacks but the first real opportunity came only in the 36th minute and it was turned to goal. Following a free kick outside the Hungary penalty area, Milen Petkov cleverly passed the ball along the ground into the penalty area. This caught the Hungarian defense by surprise, and it found its way to Zoran Yankovic, who was in the right side of the area, and left alone against Kiraly, left him with no chance to open the score. Just two minutes later Kiraly had to provide a heroic save to keep his team into the game, after a great shot by Georgi Peev.
The match didn’t produce any more moments to remember until the end of the half, with the only good thing about it being that both teams played in the spirit of a friendly game and with their play prevented possible injuries, which were highly probable given the conditions.
At the halftime brake, both teams and referee agreed that the weather conditions don’t permit for a normal game to be played, and decided to abandon the match.
The Bulgarian national team now has only one friendly scheduled before its next match for the Euro 2004 qualifications against Estonia on the 1st of April – and it is scheduled just days before the match in Talin – on the 27th of March against Jordan in Amman, but it is also in doubt because of the current situation in the Middle East, so the missed opportunity to test his players today was really the last thing Bulgarian coach Plamen Markov needed.
12.02.2003 - Bulgaria's U21 team made a 1:1 draw with Denmark
Bulgaria U21 - Denmark U21 1:1
The Bulgarian U21 national team managed to get its first positive result in a long time following a 1:1 draw against Denmark U21 in a friendly, played in Stara Zagora today, which also was the debut of the new coach of the squad Petar Miladinov.
Though not showing very good performance in front of the 7000 strong crowd at the “Beroe” stadium, the U21’s managed to get to the draw in a hotly contested match, often filled with rough challenges. The Danish went ahead in the 21st minute through Tommy Bechmann, who beat keeper Uzunov after remaining one-on-one with him. In the second half Bulgaria looked harder for an equalizer and got to it in the 63rd minute through Hertha (Berlin)’s Aleksandar Mladenov. Several minutes before that, he wasted a great opportunity, after receiving the ball some 10 meters out of Denmark’s goal, but instead of shooting, tried unsuccessfully to lob the Danish keeper who safely caught the bal. On second try in the 63rd minute he once again received the ball alone against the keeper into the Danish penalty area, but this time put the ball past him, and though the ball first met the right post of the goal, Mladenov managed to tap it in on the rebound.
Mladenov was among the best players in this match for Bulgaria, along with CSKA keeper Ventsislav Velinov, who played in the second half and produced some fantastic saves late into the match to deny the Danish a winner. The other keeper – Levski (Sofia)’s Vihren Uzunov also showed well in the first half.
Because of the rough play, the two teams had to finish the match each a man down, as Radoslav Mitrevski and Martin Pedersen were sent off in the 76th and 82nd minute respectively.
10.02.2003 - News: prior to Bulgaria-Hungary and BulgariaU21-DenmarkU21
The Bulgarian national and U21 national teams gathered today to start their preparations for their friendlies against Hungary in Cyprus and Denmark U21 in Stara Zagora respectively.
Practically all of the players in the A national team of Bulgaria gathered at the “Boyana” residence in Sofia. It became clear however that two of the main players in midfield won’t be able to take participation in the match against Hungary though. Celtic’s Stilyan Petrov is staying in Scotland, after receiving permission by coach Markov, because his wife is expecting their first child any moment now. Stuttgart’s Krasimir Balakov will also remain in Germany, because he is in the middle of negotiations with the executives of Stuttgart regarding his future in the club.
The two Litex (Lovech) players that are called up for the national team - Rosen Kirilov and Zlatomir Zagorcic are also yet to join the national team, because of the preparatory camp of their team in Italy, where Litex is currently playing in a friendly tournament. The two of them will join the team tomorrow in Cyprus.
The national team doctor Mihail Iliev confirmed that there are no injury worries in the team, despite the fact there were doubts about three of the players prior to the team gathering. CSKA’s Velizar Dimitrov came with an injury from his team preparatory camp in Turkey, but he is practically healed, and he won’t be training at full strength only today. Dinamo (Kiev)’s Georgi Peev has had an appendicitis surgery recently, but has already played 45 minutes in a match for Dinamo and is fully fit to play. Dimitar Berbatov from Bayer Leverkusen has just recently recovered from injury, but he has too already featured in a whole match for his team and doctor Iliev confirmed that he will too be fully fit to play, and it will be up to coach Plamen Markov to decide whether he will play the whole match or not. Iliev stated that everyone will take part in the training session of the team in Cyprus tomorrow and there should be no injury problems for the match. However it is expected that Markov won’t use Peev and Berbatov for the full 90 minutes.
At a press conference this evening, Plamen Markov commented on the opponent: “It is true that my players and I as a coach don’t claim to have very solid information on the opponent we will face, but after all, this is a friendly in which it is important to make judgments for our own team.
Today the team trained indoors, in the “Hristo Botev” hall, because of the poor weather conditions in Sofia. Tomorrow the team delegation flies to Cyprus for the match against Hungary, that will take place on Wednesday, 12.02.2003, and will kick off at 18:30 hours Bulgarian time.
The U21 national team of Bulgaria also gathered today in Sofia and following that departed for Stara Zagora where it is due to play against Denmark U21 also on Wednesday, 12.02.2003 at 15:00 h Bulgarian time. CSKA’s Emil Gargorov has picked up an injury in his team’s preparatory camp and despite light, it won’t permit him to participate in the match, so he dropped out of the squad and didn’t travel to Stara Zagora. The three Litex (Lovech) players - Mihail Venkov, Todor Palankov and Georgi Kakalov will join the team tomorrow, because of the Lovech side’s camp in Italy. The Danish U21 national team has already arrived in Bulgaria and has a training session scheduled for this evening.
06.02.2003 – Slavia looses to Zeleznik at the “Vladimir Grashnov”
tournament
Slavia (Sofia) lost 1:2 to Serbian side Zeleznik (Belgrade) in the
second round of the annual MobilTel tournament “Vladimir Grashnov” in
Albena.
Zeleznik opened the scoring in the 24th minute through Mijalovic, and
the Bulgarian Petar Shopov gave them a two-goal lead after the brake,
following a big mistake by Slavia’s keeper Jane Nikoloski. Shortly
after that Borko Marinkovic scored for Slavia in the 60th minute, but
the result remained unchanged until the final whistle.
The match was extremely rough and referee Zhivko Dimitrov had to sent
off four players – three of them from the winning side and one for
Blagoy Georgiev from Slavia.
In the other match of the day the hosts and organizers of the
tournament Levski (Sofia) beat 2nd level Ukrainian side Stal (Alchevsk)
2:1. Todor Kolev opened the scoring in the 7th minute. In the 23rd
minute Chilikov was brought down in the penalty area and stepped up to
take the penalty kick himself, but his shot was saved by the keeper.
However Todor Kolev was the first to get to the rebound, and passed the
ball back to Chilikov, who this time found the net for 2:0. Substitute
Stavanchuk pulled one goal back for Stal in the 75th minute, after
going past Biser Ivanov and Iliyan Stoyanov, but that was as close as
Stal got to any points.
Despite the win, Levski will almost certainly loose the tournament for
the first time since its creation.
05.02.2003 - The squads of the national teams for the upcoming friendlies
The coach of the national team Plamen Markov announced today 9 players, playing in Bulgaria who will complete the group for the national team friendly against Hungary in Cyprus on the 12th of February. Three of them are playing for the leader CSKA (Sofia), two in Levski (Sofia) and two in Litex (Lovech). Plamen Markov has called up the same players playing in Bulgaria as he did last time against Spain, with the exception of the Lokomotiv (Plovdiv) defender Georgi Petrov.
The team will gather in Sofia on the 10th of February, with some of the foreign-based player due to join the team directly in Cyprus.
Here is the full squad of the national team:
Goalkeepers:
Zdravko Zdravkov - Istanbulspor (Istanbul, TUR),
Stoyan Kolev - CSKA (Sofia)
Defenders:
Ivaylo Petkov - Istanbulspor (Istanbul, TUR),
Radostin Kishishev - Charlton Athletic (London, ENG),
Predrag Pazin - Shakhtyor (Donetsk, UKR),
Iliyan Stoyanov - Levski (Sofia),
Rosen Kirilov - Litex (Lovech),
Zlatomir Zagorcic - Litex (Lovech)
Midfielders:
Svetoslav Petrov - CSKA (Sofia),
Stilyan Petrov - Celtic (Glasgow, SCO),
Milen Petkov - AEK (Athens, GRE),
Daniel Borimirov - Munich 1860 (Munich, GER),
Georgi Peev - Dinamo (Kiev, UKR),
Krasimir Balakov - Stuttgart (Stuttgart, GER)
Forwards:
Velizar Dimitrov - CSKA (Sofia),
Georgi Chilikov - Levski (Sofia),
Zoran Yankovic - Dalian Shide (Dalian, CHI),
Vladimir Manchev - Lille OSC (Lille, FRA),
Dimitar Berbatov - Bayer (Leverkusen, GER)
Martin Petrov - Wolfsburg (Wolfsburg, GER),
Svetoslav Todorov - Portsmouth (Portsmouth, ENG)
Meanwhile, Bulgaria's new U21 national team coach, Petar Miladinov, announced his group of 20 players called up for the friendly with Danmark on 12th February 2003, which will be played in Stara Zagora. Here's the full list:
Goalkeepers:
Vihren Uzunov - Levski (Sofia), Ventzislav Velinov - CSKA (Sofia),
Defenders:
Iordan Todorov - CSKA (Sofia), Kiril Kotev - Lokomotiv (Plovdiv), Radoslav Mitrevski - Pirin (Blagoevgrad), Dimitar Stefanov - Lokomotiv (Sofia), Zhivko Milanov - Levski (Sofia)
Midfielders:
Mihail Venkov - Liteks (Lovech), Todor Palankov - Liteks (Lovech), Stanislav Genchev - Levski (Sofia), Anton Kostadinov - Levski (Sofia), Radoslav Ivanov - Lokomotiv (Sofia), Blagoi Georgiev - Slavia (Sofia), Emil Gargorov - CSKA (Sofia)
Forwards:
Chavdar Yankov - Slavia (Sofia), Dimitar Rangelov - Slavia (Sofia), Georgi Kakalov - Liteks(Lovech), Gerasim Zakov - CSKA (Sofia), Krum Bibishkov - Marek (Dupnitsa), Alexander Mladenov - Hertha (Berlin, GER).
Botev (Vratsa) will not play its FPFL 16th round match against leaders Rodopa (Smolyan) today. The fixture, which should have taken place at the “Hristo Botev” stadium in Vratsa will instead be awarded to Rodopa with a 3:0 result by default, because the financial difficulties that are hurting Botev.
Slavia (Sofia) and Litex (Lovech) had their Cup of Bulgaria 1/4 final tie postponed by the BFU after a mutual agreement between both clubs.
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