The team of Botev (Plovdiv) won with 1:0 the team of Maritsa. The friendly match was dictated by the break for the national teams and was played at the “Hristo Botev” stadium.
The only goal in the match was scored by Mohamed Brahimi in the 65th minute. The fast-footed footballer took advantage of a mistake by Maritza’s goalkeeper, overcame him and easily scored in the goal.
The match started with pressure from the Botevists. In the 7th minute of the match, a wonderful lead pass by captain Ivelin Popov found Mohamed Brahimi face-to-face with goalkeeper Iliya Nikolov, who managed to deflect the Frenchman’s shot. In the 10th minute, Ukaki entered the Maritsa penalty area and found Ivelin Popov, but the experienced midfielder missed a great opportunity to score. The offensive actions of the “yellow-black” continued.
In the 17th minute, Konstantinos Balogiannis made a good pass on the left flank to Ivelin Popov – our captain with one touch made a shot, but Iliya Nikolov saved.
In the 22nd minute, Botev executed a direct free kick – Ivelin Popov stood behind the ball, made a technical strong shot that went out. In the 24th minute, goalkeeper Hidayet Hankic distinguished himself with a good save. In the 31st minute, Christian Nwachukwu put the ball on Brahimi’s head – Botev’s offensive player made a shot, but the ball went out.
During the break, Dusan Kerkez made numerous changes to his team and gave a chance to all available footballers. In the 50th minute, Botev came close to scoring the first goal, but Samuel Akere’s header found the crossbar.
In the 65th Botev scored a goal in the match. A misunderstanding in Maritsa’s defense led to a mistake by their goalkeeper, which Mohamed Brahimi took advantage of and scored into the unguarded goal for 1-0.
Maritsa tried to get back into the game and made several interesting attacks towards Daniel Kaiser’s goal (the Pole replaced Hankic at the break), but to no avail.
The pace dropped again and both teams were mostly playing in midfield. Attacks on both flanks by Akere and Miroslav Georgiev were the starting points for dangerous situations in front of Maritsa’s goal. Until the end of the match, there were no particularly dangerous situations in front of both goals and the control match ended with a 1-0 victory for Dusan Kerkez’s team.
After the break for the national teams, Botev plays in a home match on March 31 at 4:30 p.m. at the “Hristo Botev” stadium against Cherno More FC.
