Bulgarian midfielder Ivan Sulev became one of the heroes for Cagliari in winning the “Vaiecas“ trophy. The Italian team defeated Rayo Vallecano on penalties with 6:5, after the two teams finished 1:1 in regular time.
The 20-year-old Sulev appeared on the pitch in the 71st minute, and subsequently received the trust of the coaching staff to take one of the penalties for Cagliari. The Bulgarian stood behind the ball on the second shot for his team and demonstrated composure, successfully converting.
In regular time, the hosts from Rayo Vallecano took the lead with a goal from Alvaro Garcia. Cagliari, however, managed to equalize through M’Bala Nzola, and no more goals were scored until the end of the 90 minutes.
In the subsequent series of penalty kicks, the Italians proved to be more accurate and secured the trophy.
Sulev has been part of Cagliari since the age of 16, when he left Lokomotiv (Plovdiv) to continue his development in Italy. Until now, the young midfielder is still waiting for his official debut for the first team, although he was in the group for Serie A matches several times last season.
During the current campaign, the Bulgarian is also among the regular choices of the coaching staff. Sulev has been included in the squad for all seven official matches of Cagliari so far, including the Italian Cup matches, but has yet to record playing minutes in an official match.
The match in Madrid was also marked by an unpleasant incident before the first referee's signal. Rayo Vallecano's stadium was the target of vandalism during the night. Unknown individuals were filmed damaging seats and dousing them with paint.
Despite the damage caused, the match went ahead as planned, and at the end Cagliari celebrated winning the trophy after their successful performance in the penalty shootout.