Bulgaria In the Champions League

In what has become an annual Heath Post tradition, we are checking in on the progress of Bulgaria's champion in the UEFA Champions' League -- the most prestigious club soccer tournament in the world.

As we've previously explained, every country in Europe gets to send at least one team to the Champions' League.  But, like so many things in Europe, this surface equality masks a deeper inequality.  A lot of the big clubs in countries like England and Spain automatically qualify for the 32 slots in the group stages.  But champions from the smaller countries -- like Bulgaria -- have to fight their way through various qualifying rounds in hopes of reaching the group stages.

This year's Bulgarian entry is PFC Ludogorets Razgrad.  (The PFC stands for "Professional Football Club.")  Razgrad is a town of about 33,000 people in the northeast corner of Bulgaria.  It's part of the Ludogorie region (thus "Ludogorets") of Northeast Bulgaria.  The name means "region of wild forests," but there's also a lot of farmland.  It's apparently a great place to see butterflies.

Anyway, last year Ludogorets Razgrad went to the Champions League, but were robbed in their qualifying round match against Dinamo Zagreb.  Now they're back.

They started in the Second Qualifying Round with a match against Slovan Bratislava, the champions of Slovakia.  In the first leg, played in Bratislava on July 17, the Slovaks got two late goals to take a 2-1 lead.  Then, three days later, Ludogorets lost their first game of the Bulgarian season to Lyubimets 2007, a new team that represents a town with less than 8,000 people.

At this point -- one game into the domestic season, and on the verge of elimination from the Champions' League -- LUDOGORETS FIRED THEIR COACH!  Yes, Ivaylo Petev -- the very man who had taken them to back-to-back Bulgarian League titles -- GONE!  (It's anecdotes like this that make me think we should turn the Heath Post into a blog about Bulgarian soccer.)

With no head coach, Ludogorets appointed Petev's assistant, Georgi Dermendzhiev, as an interim coach.  But he only lasted a day.  On July 22 (the Monday after their defeat on Saturday), Ludogorets gave the job to Stoycho Stoev, who had previously coached some smaller clubs in Bulgaria and the national junior team.  Ludogorets said that a lot of foreigners wanted the job, but they "decided to rely on a Bulgarian once again."

So after getting their new coach on July 22, Ludogorets faced a do-or-die showdown with Slovan Bratislava on July 24.  BUT THEY CAME THROUGH!  Inspired by a big home crowd, and playing much better than they had in their two prior matches, Ludogorets pounded Slovan Bratislava 3-0 to win the two-leg match by an aggregate score of 4-2.  You can see the highlights, accompanied by some very intense heavy metal music, here.  Actually, you can see the whole first half here.

And so, for the first time in club history, Ludogorets was in the Third Qualifying Round.  Their opponent is the champion of Serbia, FK Partizan of Belgrade.  Partizan is a big-time power in this part of Europe -- they've won 25 national championships.

The first leg of the Ludogorets/Partizan match took place in Razgrad on July 31.  There was no score at the half, but Partizan opened the scoring with a goal early in the second half.  Once again, however, Ludogorets fought back -- scoring goals in the 54th and 65th minutes to come away with a 2-1 victory.  But, of course, the match isn't over.  Ludogorets travels to Partizan on August 6th for the second leg.  If they survive that match, Ludogorets will be only one round away from the group stages.