The team of Botev (Plovdiv) returned to the winning move. Dušan Kerkez’s players played a very strong tactical game and deservedly congratulated themselves with 3 points and 3 hits in Beroe’s goal.
The match from the XXVII round of the efbet League was played at the “Beroe” stadium in Stara Zagora, and the Botevists received non-stop support from the visiting sector for the entire 90 minutes.
The match was missed by Antonio Perera and James Eto’o, who are serving suspensions for accumulated cards in our native championship. There were changes in the head coach’s line-up due to various injuries. In the first minutes of the match, the “canaries” dictated the pace and tried several times to make it difficult for Beroe. In the 20th minute, Beroe’s Sebastian Villa found Francisco Politino diagonally, but his shot was saved by Hidayet Hankic. In the 23rd minute, the first goal of the match fell – after a corner kick by Beroe, the defense in yellow and black coped and organized a counterattack through the center of the field. Emmanuel Umeh broke into Beroe’s half, passed to the left to the free Konstantinos Balogiannis. He stayed face to face with Artur Motta, overcame the goalkeeper and elegantly sent the ball into the net – 1:0.
In the 31st minute, the Botevists scored a second goal. Konstantinos Baloyiannis crosses from a corner to the left of Beroe’s goal. Georgi Nikolov was the one to head it into the home team’s goal for 2:0.
By the end of the first half, no more goals were scored and Dušan Kerkez’s players went into the break with a two-goal lead.
The second 45 minutes started in a great way for Botev’s players. In the 51st minute, the score became 3:0. Emmanuel Umeh overcame a Beroe defender, entered the penalty area and assisted Georgi Nikolov, who scored a goal in an empty net. That was Umeh’s second assist in the match. In the midfield, the good relationship between captains Ivelin Popov and Lachezar Baltanov made an impression. Both players elegantly passed the ball on both flanks on several occasions and combined wonderfully in the middle of the field. Hidayet Hankic, on the other hand, made a number of good interventions that kept his goal clean.
Gradually the pace of the match dropped. Beroe was unable to threaten Botev’s defense and thus the match ended with a convincing success with 3:0 for the “canaries”.
The next match for Botev is next Sunday at 17:45 at the “Hristo Botev” stadium against CSKA 1948.
STARTING SQUAD: Hidayet Hankic, 5. Jonas Tamm, 7. Mohamed Brahimi (52′ – 16. Samuel Akere), 10. Ivelin Popov (K), 17. Nikolay Minkov, 18. Dimitar Papazov, 30. Lachezar Baltanov (65′ – 6. Dylan Martens), 31. Umeh Emmanuel (88′ – 4. Ehije Ukaki), 38. Konstantinos Balogiannis, 79. Atanas Chernev, 93. Georgi Nikolov (87′ – 14. Faustas Steponavičius)
RESERVES: Matvey Igonen, 4. Ehije Ukaki, 6. Dylan Martens, 14. Faustas Steponavičius, 16. Samuel Akere, 40. Christian Nwachukwu, 42. Ivaylo Videv, 43. Miroslav Georgiev, 44. Biser Bonev
