Botev suffered an undeserved 0:2 loss to Lokomotiv in the Plovdiv Derby. The match from the 32nd round of the First League was played at the Hristo Botev Stadium.
The match offered a lot of emotions for the spectators, but was marred by the controversial decisions of the refereeing team, to say the least. This is hardly a surprise to anyone considering the compromised VAR referee Stanimir Trenchev, who has repeatedly harmed Botev Plovdiv over the years.
The first half was a nightmare for the “yellow-blacks”. In the 15th minute, Emerson Rodriguez was sent off with a straight red card, which was signaled by the VAR to the referee.
3 minutes later, Catalin Itu crossed into the penalty area, where Joel Zwartz was left completely uncovered and headed in for 0:1.
In the 33rd minute, Todor Nedelev was injured and was forced to be substituted. The captain of the “Canaries” will undergo extensive examinations in the coming days to determine his condition.
After the break, Lachezar Baltanov’s boys were total masters of the field. The great support from the stands played a big role in this, which gave the Botev players courage to seek a complete turnaround.
In the 68th minute, a strong shot by Balogiannis was blocked by Milosavljevic, and 2 minutes later, a very dangerous shot by Enock Kwateng flew past the goal.
Encouraged by the powerful support from the stands, Botev’s players continued to attack, and this led to the 74th minute, when Franklin Mascotte blew the ball away with an equalizing goal.
After a 5-minute review of the situation, the compromised Stanimir Trenchev and company disallowed the goal, and the numerous television replays never convinced them of the correctness of the decision.
After this situation, the tone in the “yellow-black” ranks dropped and this was used by the guests, who scored a second goal in added time, by striker Joel Zwartz.
