Real vs Barcelona, Inter versus Milan, Celtics vs Rangers... In almost every football tournament in the world there are derbies that gather a great number of fans. This is also true for the Bulgarian football league. In the 26-th round of this year’s tournament in the A Group, the rivals from Levski and CSKA faced each other for the 133rd time in the Sofia derby. The round offered another interesting match between the teams of Litex (Lovech) and the champions of Ludogorets (Razgrad), who are also leaders in the current chart.

Unfortunately, the long-awaited derby match between Levski and CSKA offered the fans of football rough play and finished with 13 yellow and 6 red cards shown by the referee. It was obvious that the performance of both teams was far away from their best. This is not a surprise keeping in mind the financial worries of CSKA and the constant changes in the team and management of Levski. In the end, the victory went to CSKA, thanks to a goal by Emil Gargorov - one of the few players on the field who preferred to kick the ball rather than the other players’ legs. After the first stage of the tournament the Army Men hold the 3rd position of the chart. Levski remains sixth but being in the first group of 7 teams would give the team the right to compete for the champion’s title in the second stage.

Ironically, Levski and CSKA will face each other next weekend and will have the chance to offer their fans more true football.

True football was what the teams of Litex and Ludogorets offered on Sunday at the stadium in Lovech. The clash was fierce and both teams wanted the victory but the match ended in a goalless draw. This keeps Ludogorets at the top of the chart with a point more than Litex. Ludogorets will now have a rest during the first round of the second stage of the tournament. This will be much needed before the match against Valencia in the Europa League.

So, Ludogoretz, Litex and CSKA occupy the top three places, followed by Botev (Plovdiv) and Lokomotiv (Plovdiv). Levski is sixth and 7th is the team of Cherno More (Varna).

The top seven teams will surely offer great emotions until the end of the season and the outcome of the coming matches is unknown.  In the other group of 7, things look more predictable. The three teams that are most likely to keep their place in the A Group are those of Beroe (Stara Zagora) and the Sofia teams of Slavia and Lokomotiv. A reason for such a forecast gives not only the difference of 9 points between the third and the fourth in this group, but also the lack of fighting spirit in the teams of Chernomoretz and Neftohimic (Burgas), Pirin (Goce Delchev) and Ljubimetz.

English version: Alexander Markov