Fragile advantage before the second leg in League Europa

17-07-2014 21:41

Botev Plovdiv defeated the Austrian Sankt Polten 2-1 in the first leg of the second qualification round of League Europa 2014/15. The first goal was scored by Ivan Cvetkov in the 38th minute by a penalty shot, given for a foul against Marian Ognyanov. Despite a lot of good goal chances, The Canaries received a goal in the middle of the second half. In the 55th minute Segovia equalized with a header. Botev continued to be the better team, but the players couldn't find the back of the net, or in the moments when their shots were on target - Austrian keeper was perfect. In the end though, he had no chance, when after one of the few mistakes in the St Polten's defense, the ball reached the youngster Chunchukov, who couldn't miss from 10 meters frontal and gave Botev the win in the 88th minute.

The next game is one week from now in Austria. The Yellow-Blacks need to keep their lead to go to the next round, for which they will know their opponent after Friday's draw. Botev happened to be the only Bulgarian team who won in League Europa in Thursday, after CSKA drawing 1-1, and Litex losing 0-2 against their opponents. This is also the 10th game in a row without Botev being defeated, which is a record for Bulgarian team - CSKA have the same number of consecutive games without a loss, and if The Canaries win or draw against St Polten in Austria, they will beat this record.