UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE Third qualifying round, first leg CSKA Sofia 1 Derry City 0: DERRY CITY have given themselves every chance of overturning the narrowest of deficits next week after an organised, disciplined display in the Vassil Levski Stadium last night.
Stephen Kenny’s side frustrated a talented CSKA who, despite all their possession, had to settle for a solitary second-half goal from Ivan Stoyanov, leaving the Candystripes to rightly think they remain very much in this tie.
Disappointment, but no little pride, was etched on manager Kenny’s face afterwards as he praised his players, CSKA and affirmed there’s a cracking match to come at the Brandywell next Thursday night.
“I’m disappointed,” said Kenny. “I thought we were excellent in the first half. We were very composed in possession. We restricted them to long-range efforts.
“We got caught in the first minute of the second half. A little loss of concentration inside and Marquinhos got in and Ger (Doherty) made a terrific save. All the other shots were comfortable.
“It was just the one great chance that they had. That period they had waves of attacks and it looked like a goal would come. But we just needed to see it out.
“The nature of the goal we conceded was disappointing. A long throw in, not a great header out and a free man knocking it into the far corner.
“The players defended excellently. The midfielders in the first half were really, really good. The forwards worked hard.
“CSKA are an excellent team. Really, really excellent. But the tie is still alive for the second leg. We’re 1-0 down with 90 minutes left. The tie is not dead.”
The goal came on 74 minutes. Clive Delaney’s header only partially cleared Pavel Vidanov’s long throw and it fell to midfielder Stoyanov who drilled a shot past Doherty from just outside the box.
Though warm, the conditions were more favourable than expected and Derry coped well with CSKA’s early probing before the vocal 10,000 crowd.
Doherty dealt ably with a free-kick from Marquinhos, while the Brazilian blazed high inside the opening 10 minutes.
With Delaney commanding in the air and captain Peter Hutton using his vast experience, CSKA struggled to get into the Derry box, resorting to shooting from distance.
Derry countered constructively, forcing the only corner of the first half and creating its best chance on 31 minutes.
Right back Ger O’Brien got to the end line to cross and Thomas Stewart’s downward header was a foot or so wide of Zdravko Chavdarov’s left-hand post.
The crowd vented their anger on CSKA at the interval with jeers and whistles ringing in their players’ ears as they trooped off.
Doubtless with a further ear-bashing from their manager Lubo Penev during the interval, CSKA had much more about them on the resumption and should have taken the lead within two minutes.
Svetoslav Petrov’s sublime ball in behind O’Brien put Marquinhos in on goal, but Doherty was quickly off his line to save superbly with his feet. Doherty did well again on 67 minutes, tipping over Portuguese Rui Miguel’s shot.
CSKA: Chavdarov; Minev , Kotev, Ivanov, Vidanov; I. Stoyanov, Petrov (Orlinov, 58 mins.), Yanev, Marquinhos; Timonov (Saidhodzha, 66 mins.); Rui Miguel (Todorov, 80 mins.).
DERRY CITY: Doherty; O'Brien, Delaney, Hutton, Gray; McGlynn (McCallion, 73 mins.), Molloy, Higgins (Martyn, 81 mins.), Deery, Stewart; McManus (Farren, 71 mins).
Referee: Selcuk Dereli(Turkey).
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