One of the strongest European evenings for Ludogorets in recent years was recorded. In their fourth Group H Conference League encounter, the Eagles upset the division-leading Fenerbahce. Both Jakub Piotrowski and Ruan Seko, who came on as a substitute, scored to give their team a 2-0 victory.
The Razgrad squad played stout defense and made the most of their opportunities up front to beat one of Europe's best teams so far this season. The "Eagles" dominated, especially in the first half, and got into some dangerous circumstances many times, but Croatian national goalie Dominik Livakovic had a day.
Fenerbahçe's defense was unable to clear the ball in the 17th minute, allowing Anton Nedyalkov to take over for Jakub Piotrovski. The Pole took a shot from beyond the box, and it went straight into the top left corner of Dominik Livakovic's net, making the score 1:0.
Eight minutes later, the Polish midfielder nearly scored a second goal, but Livakovic made a diving stop on a close-range header. After 8 minutes, Kwadwo Dua made a break down the right and fired toward the near corner, but the ball went wide.
The away team came out of halftime determined to tie the game. From a bad angle, Michy Bachui blasted a shot that hit the upright.
A second blow was dealt by the Razgrad populace in the second minute of extra time. The "greens" clinched the victory thanks to a lightning-fast counterattack led by Georgi Dermendzhiev's former players and completed off by substitute Ruan Seko.
Until a few days ago, Fenerbahçe was on a string of 19 straight victories in all events.
With today's win, Ludogorets has gained six points and is once again in the hunt for one of the top two spots, which guarantees entry into the tournament's knockout round. With nine, "Fenery" continues to dominate, followed by Denmark's Nordsland with seven. Last is Spartak (Trnava) with one. /BGNES
