Statement by the coach of Cherno More Ilian Iliev after the match in the round of 16 of the Bulgarian Cup tournament against Arda, which ended 3:0 for the Kardzhali team.
Ilian Iliev (coach of Cherno More) – “An unpleasant result. I also told your colleagues that what the pitch and the conditions might have given us last time, now they took it away from us. Given that Arda, according to the conditions, played the match correctly. They were collected, they waited for their moment, they scored, they took the lead. Then you saw - an absurd second goal at the beginning of the second half, which crushed all our mentality and positivity, which we wanted to score, so that we could turn the game around.
So, I think that on this pitch, when you have a goal lead and you come home, it is always difficult for the team that is building, as it was in the previous match. So, we can only congratulate and regret that we were not able to come together to play this match well, as I also told your colleagues, that we had some things during the week that I did not like. The fact that some players travel somewhere immediately after the match, there is always something in the background and, as they say, some of them may have played the match in advance. As a half-season - we did not show the perseverance that we should show.
After good matches, not so good ones follow, as in this case. So, we need to have more perseverance. 12-13 people can't pull the car. And the rest, we want to part with some of them, but they don't want to leave, because Varna is a good city to live in. And if the others who are here, besides the other 12-13, don't wake up, it will still be the same - a few good matches, then down again. Some of the players who play constantly, are constantly at their best, there's no way they can last the whole season. Of course, at these moments, others have to come in to replace them. And those others are absent.“
Statement by Arda coach Alexander Tunchev after the match in the round of 16 of the Bulgarian Cup tournament against Cherno More, which ended 3:0 for the Kardzhali team.
Alexander Tunchev (Arda coach): “I am very pleased. We eliminated a very serious opponent. An opponent who defeated CSKA here at this stadium a few days ago.
So I congratulated the players inside. I thanked them mostly for the dedication they showed, not only in this match. In the last few matches we regained the self-confidence we had lost. The streak probably came after the victory over Ludogorets. More or less, you can beat the current champion of Bulgaria, and that doesn't happen very often in Razgrad. This thing turned things around inside the locker room.
I know that the boys have qualities. It was a matter of time for us to regain that self-confidence. The other thing is - we started to be much more responsible. Each one of them, both as individuals and as a team. And we showed it. I told your colleagues a lot, that during this half-season we are playing better away from home, in our away games. We manage to regroup in a good way, to help each other, and also to realize the situations that we create. This was one of the problems that got us into a slight mini crisis. Each of the players we have selected with my staff and Ivaylo Petkov, we know their capabilities. We know their qualities. At the moment I can't give you anything specific. We have absolutely no intention of either outgoing or incoming transfers.
Of course we have to talk to the president, to think things over, but I know for sure that we have to take a striker. We need a striker after Zhoro Nikolov's injuries. We start the preparation on January 4. We will spend the first part of the preparation in Kardzhali, then on January 18 we leave for Antalya. I hope, I want to play four matches there.“