Botev (Plovdiv) won their away match against Krumovgrad 1-0 in the third round of the championship, with the only goal at the “Nikola Shterev — Starika” football complex scored by James Eto’o in the 52′.
The “Canaries” started the match more actively, and in the 9′, a header attempt by Antoine Conte was saved by Yanko Georgiev. After half an hour of play, a powerful long-range shot by Samuel Akere missed the target. A little later, Eto’o also took a shot from outside the penalty area, but it went over the crossbar. In the 41′ Hans Kristian Bernat made a skillful save on a shot by Diego Raposo to keep the score goalless after the first 45′.
At the beginning of the second half, Joonas Tamm attempted a technical shot from a set piece, but Georgiev caught it. In the 52′ came the decisive moment of the match. Left unmarked outside the penalty area, Eto’o gave Botev the lead with a brilliant long-distance strike. The assist was by Ivelin Popov, marking his third of the season for the “Canaries” captain.
A little over an hour into the game, Christian Nwachukwu was also close to scoring, but his shot from a tight angle hit the post. In the 65′, Martin Sekulić had a chance to settle the match between Botev and Krumovgrad. A mistake in the hosts’ defense left the Croatian one-on-one with Yanko Georgiev, but he failed to double the lead for the “Yellow-Blacks”.
A little later, Hans Kristian Bernat made a brilliant save after a technical shot by Vyacheslav Velev, thus helping Botev keep their first clean sheet of the season.
The next challenge for the “Canaries” is the home match against Zrinjski (Mostar) in the third qualifying round of the Conference League. The match at the “Hristo Botev” stadium is on Thursday (August 8) at 9 PM. Tickets for the match are already available HERE.
Starting lineup for Botev: 1. Hans Kristian Bernat; 17. Nikolay Minkov, 19. Antoine Conte, 5. Joonas Tamm, 38. Konstantinos Baloyanis; 28. Yanis Karabelyov, 15. James Eto’o; 40. Christian Nwachukwu; 10. Ivelin Popov (c), 7. Samuel Akere; 9. Martin Sekulić
