Botev’s (Plovdiv) under-15 and under-16 boys took their derby matches against their city peers from Lokomotiv (Plovdiv). The matches of the 11th round of the Elite youth groups were played at the Football Complex “Nikola Shterev – Starika”.
In the first match Botev U15 led by Milen Kunchev and Alexander Grancharski won 2:1 over Lokomotiv. “The Canaries took the lead in the 4th minute after a unique performance by Atanas Kirev. By the end of the half, the Botev players had several clean chances in front of the visitors’ goal, but both teams retired with the score 1:0 in favour of Botev. In the second half our dominance continued. Lokomotiv took advantage of a mistake by the Yellow-Blacks defence and from a static position equalised the score. Botev didn’t give up and minutes before the last whistle Christian Zhelev from a direct free kick fouled Christian Najerian and scored in Lokomotiv’s goal for the final 2:1.
In the U16 battle, Botev beat their city rival 3:1. The players led by Petar Penchev and Rumen Bayrev excelled in the first game and deservedly led with 2:0 after goals by Samuil Tsonov and Radoslav Karamanov. In the second 45 minutes, Lokomotiv scored one goal, but the quick reaction of the Canaries was not too late and Simeon Turlakov scored the final 3:1 in the match.