Sofia in the spotlight

By Pawel Dimow

The Bulgarian capital will enjoy the glare of the football spotlight today with its two leading clubs, PFC CSKA Sofia and PFC Levski Sofia, both on UEFA Cup duty and the UEFA Executive Committee in the city for its latest summit.

Belgian superiority
Members of UEFA's supreme executive body, including UEFA Chief Executive Lars-Christer Olsson, will attend tonight's fixture at the Georgi Asparuhov stadium, where Levski take on KSK Beveren in their first round first-leg tie. No Bulgarian side has ever eliminated one from Belgium in European competition, with Levski having been beaten by R. Antwerp FC and KSC Eendracht Aalst at this stage previously.

'Lack of experience'
Having won their opening five matches of the season, though, Levski coach Stanimir Stoilov has high hopes of putting an end to that statistic. "Beveren are a young team and have had their problems," he said. "Maybe their lack of experience in European competition will be a major advantage to us."

Army connection
Like Levski, CSKA have been faultless in the Premier League - a division they top after scoring 20 goals and conceding just one in five matches. CSKA's away match against the 1985/86 European champions FC Steaua Bucuresti not only pits together two great names from the past, but two clubs with close historical connections with the army in their respective countries. Steaua won their last meeting, a UEFA Champions League qualifier in 1997.

Dimitrov fit
Aside from the injured Evgeni Yordanov, coach Ferario Spasov has a full complement of players to choose from after Bulgarian international Velizar Dimitrov, who recently extended his contract to June 2006, was deemed fit to start up front. "We need to be realistic," Spasov said. "A very tough game awaits us. I'm sure we'll create opportunities and we hope to turn them into goals."

Lost to Liverpool
A third Bulgarian representative, PFC Litex Lovech, also have designs on reaching the UEFA Cup's inaugural group stage, with Grazer AK blocking their path. The Austrian side won the sides' last meeting in 1998, winning 3-1 over two legs at the same stage of this competition. GAK find themselves in the UEFA Cup after losing to Liverpool FC in Champions League qualifying, while Litex have already overcome NK Željeznicar.

'Technically better'
Coach Stoicho Mladenov believes Litex have the wherewithal to emerge triumphant. "We are technically better than our rivals and we should take advantage of that," he said. "GAK and Željeznicar are totally different in terms of ability and class but I hope the players will do what is required to succeed."