Levski and Botev Plovdiv ended in a 1:1 draw in a match from the 17th round of the First League. At the "Georgi Asparuhov" stadium in the capital, the Blues failed to win in a fourth consecutive championship game.
Before the start of the match, both teams paid tribute to Ferrrio Spasov, who died in a car accident. Nikolay Kostov's players took the lead in the 18th minute through Tsunami, who took advantage of an assist from Marin Petkov. At halftime, flares were fired at the stadium, but the situation was calmed down. However, in the first minutes of the second half, the Yellow and Black restored parity through Antoine Baroan. In the 65th minute, the head referee Nikola Popov initially awarded a penalty to the guests for a foul on Patrick Gabriel-Galchev, who came off the bench, against Yanis Karabelyov. However, Popov was called to review the situation at the side-pitch VAR monitor and after checking the situation, canceled his decision.
No new goals were scored until the end and so Levski's streak of bad results continued. The Blues failed to win a fourth successive top-flight game - two draws with Arda and Botev, and losses to Beroe and CSKA 1948, failing to win a game in the absence of their big attacking star Welton. Kostov's team is sixth with 28 points, already 10 behind leaders CSKA. Dusan Kerkez's squad is tenth with 20 points.
In the next round, after the break for the national teams, Botev will meet Pirin Blagoevgrad, while Levski will first visit Dunav in Ruse in the round of 32 for the Bulgarian Cup, and then will play against Lokomotiv Sofia in the First League. /BGNES
