Derry City 1 CSKA Sofia 1: DERRY CITY may have failed to match St Patrick's Athletic's superb Europa League result in Moscow, but Stephen Kenny's men went down fighting at the Brandywell against top Bulgarian side CSKA Sofia last night.
Kenny’s 4-5-1 gameplan worked to perfection up until the final 20 minutes but the visitors showed their class and technical ability, and deserved to win a match in which Derry goalkeeper Gerard Doherty was outstanding.
Backed by a vociferous support of 3,000, Derry had to withstand the lightning pace of CSKA front men Ivan Stoyanov and Brazilian, Marcos Malachias, who caused problems in the first half. But CSKA lost the services of their first-choice goalkeeper Zdravko Chavdarov after 29 minutes following a collision with Derry midfielder Kevin Deery. With both players competing for a high ball, the goalkeeper appeared to be concussed having sustained a gash to his face.
A swerving shot from long range by Pavel Vidanov after just four minutes signalled CSKA’s intent but Doherty did well to make the save. After 27 minutes a curling free-kick from Todor Timonov was also dealt with by the Derry goalkeeper. It was the visitors who threatened again in the 38th minute when Derry skipper Peter Hutton took a risk in a dangerous position and when Timonov played Stoyanov into space the striker drove his shot recklessly wide of the target.
Doherty again stood firm with one minute of the half remaining when another Stoyanov strike was superbly blocked by Doherty.
Derry went close to shooting themselves in the foot in the 56th minute following a defensive howler by central defender Clive Delaney, when his under-weighted header back to his goalkeeper fell short but Doherty threw his body in front of Malachias’ volley. However, in the 69th minute the Bulgarians ended this tie as a contest when they added to their 1-0 first leg lead with a crucial away strike through Malachias.
Awarded a free-kick 40 yards from goal, the Brazilian drove a low ferocious curling shot into the bottom corner of the net much.
Predictably that strike took the sting out of the tie, Derry now having to score three goals to remain in contention. In the 82nd minute they gave their supporters something to cheer about. A Ruaidhri Higgins free-kick was floated to the back post and when Tom McManus headed the ball back across the goal the unmarked substitute David Scullion headed home. But with four minutes left Gareth McGlynn brought CSKA substitute Orlin Orlinov down and the referee produced a red card, suggesting it was a “last man” offence.
CSKA almost scored a second goal in the 92nd minute but Doherty pulled off yet another top-drawer stop to deny Orlinov.
DERRY CITY:Doherty; O'Brien, Delaney, Hutton, O'Brien; Stewart, Deery, Molloy (Scullion, 73), Higgins, Farren (McGlynn, 52); McManus (Nash, 89).
CSKA Sofia:Chavdarov (Karadjou, 29); Minev, Kotev, Ivanov, Vidanov; Todorov, Yanev, Petrov, Stoyanov; Timonov (Rui Migel, 65), Malachias (Orlinov, 82).
Referee: J Efong Nzolo (Belgium).
