Botev (Plovdiv) started their official matches for the 24/25 season with a 2:1 success over Slovenia’s Maribor in a meeting of the first qualifying round of the Europa League. Anthony Ujah and Nikola Iliev scored on their debuts to give Dušan Kerkez’s side a lead ahead of the second leg in a week’s time. Almost 29 years later, the “Hristo Botev” stadium hosted a European match of the “yellow-blacks”, and the atmosphere in the packed stands was incredible.
The match started well for Botev and in the 9th minute Anthony Ujah took advantage of a cross from captain Ivelin Popov to score his first goal for the “yellow’black” in an official match. Maribor answered 10 minutes later and Pius Shirvis equalized. By half-time, the Canaries had a chance to take the lead again, but a beautiful effort from James Eto’o hit the post. Samuel Akere also had a chance, but his shot from distance was blocked by Ajbe Yug. In the stoppage time of the first half, Matvei Igonen made an important save after a shot by Suadny.
In the second half, chances in front of both goals were abundant, and the first one was cleaner in front of the guests from Maribor, but Edgar Beugre hit the post. A little later, Josip Ilicic also tested Igonen, but Botev’s Estonian keeper kept the net clean. In 73′, Ujah was close to his second goal of the match after a lead pass from Antony Perera, but his shot went inches wide of the target. A quarter of an hour before the end of the match came the decisive moment for Botev. After an excellent breakthrough by Akere from the right and an assist by Uja, the youngster of the “yellow and black” Nikola Iliev scored for 2:1. The rematch with Maribor at the “Lyudski Vrat” stadium will be played on July 18 at 20:15 local time (21:15 Bulgarian time).
Botev continued the positive trend of being undefeated at the “Hristo Botev” stadium in their meetings from the European club tournaments, and their total number is now six.
In addition to Ujah, Sirki Diabate, Alen Korošec and Andrey Yordanov also recorded their first minutes in an official match for the “canaries”.
Botev’s starting line-up: 32. Matvey Igonen; 38. Konstantinos Balogiannis, 5. Jonas Tamm, 19. Antoine Conte, 17. Nikolay Minkov; 15. James Eto’o, 20. Antonio Perera; 40. Christian Nwachukwu, 10. Ivelin Popov (C), 7. Samuel Akere, 11. Anthony Ujah
