Bulgaria round-up: Levski nearly there

PFC Levski Sofia moved closer to winning their third consecutive title tonight after defeating rivals CSKA Sofia 2-0 at the Georgi Asparuhov stadium.

Poor weather
Both teams had good chances to score in the first half but Levski's Georgi Ivanov and new signing Sasa Simonovic were denied, while Hristo Yanev failed for CSKA. In terrible weather conditions, the second half started badly for CSKA as Svetoslav Petrov was sent off for a foul in the 52nd minute. Four minutes later Simonovic received the ball in the area and after a fine work tucked it into the bottom left corner of Nenad Lukic's goal to open the scoring for Levski.

Ivanov makes amends
Ivanov's wasteful night continued when he missed a couple of good chances to double Levski's advantage before finally scoring his team's second goal in the 81st minute. Midfield player Peter Kabat was left one-on-one with Lukic but failed to score. However, Ivanov was first to the loose ball and put it behind Lukic.

Litex look likely
Elsewhere, PFC Litex Lovech took a decisive step towards securing second place in the championship after they defeated fourth-placed PFC Lokomotiv Plovdiv 3-1 at home. Litex took control of the game early on as Stefan Yurukov scored in the fifth minute, but Lokomotiv surprisingly drew level in the 17th minute through a Vancho Trayanov goal. Captain Rosen Kirilov made it 2-1 in the 29th minute and Yurukov added his second a minute into first-half injury time to cap a fine win for his team.

Misery for Slavia
PFC Slavia Sofia lost their forth consecutive game in the play-offs after they were defeated 2-1 at home by PFC Neftochimik. Even though they took the lead in the 58th minute through a Georgi Vladimirov penalty, Slavia quickly found themselves behind as Stoyko Sakaliev scored in the 60th and 71st minute to give Neftochimik the win.

Marek magic
In the bottom eight, PFC Marek recorded yet another win as they defeated PFC Spartak Pleven 3-1 in Dupnitsa. The away team took the lead in the second minute through Yonko Peykov, but Marek recovered with two goals by Vladimir Kolev in the 40th and 47th minutes. Anton Evtimov added a third in the 87th minute.

Djambazov double
Konstantin Djambazov scored both goals in PFC Chernomorets Burgas's 2-0 home win against PFC Lokomotiv Sofia, while PFC Spartak Varna earned a deserved 2-0 triumph against PFC Beroe through first-half goals by Stefan Donchev and Nikolay Stanchev. In the last game of the day, PFC Cherno More failed to win at home against PFC Belasitsa even though they took the lead in the 65th minute through Stanislav Rumenov. However, Under-21 international Aleksandar Tunchev gave his team the draw with a goal eight minutes later.