Levski is visiting Braga in the second leg of the Europa League qualifying round. The match at the “Estadio Municipal” starts at 22:00 and will be led by the Belgian Lothar D’Ont, sportal.bg reported.
A week ago at the “Georgi Asparuhov” stadium, the match ended goalless - 0:0, so today in the southwestern corner of Europe, the “Blues” will try to find a way to move forward. The Levski team is expected to be supported by nearly 1,000 supporters.
The winner of the clash will face the winner of the Lugano - CFR Cluj match, as the first match in Switzerland also ended in a 0:0 draw. The loser will move to the Conference League, where in the third round of the competition they will meet the winner of the Petrocub - Sabah match, where in the first match the Azerbaijanis won 2:0 as a guest and are significantly closer to this phase.
To reach this phase, the Bulgarians managed to eliminate the Israeli Hapoel (Beer Sheva) in the first round. The first match in Sofia was also goalless, as was the 90 minutes of the return leg in Hungary, where the match was played due to the military situation in the Levant, and so the match went into extra time, where the two teams exchanged one goal each, leading to a penalty shootout. There, Svetoslav Vutsov managed to save three of the opponent's shots and became the hero of the 3:1 victory with accurate shots.
Levski coach Julio Velasquez will be able to count on all of his main players, including the latest new signing Mazir Sula, who joined the team a few days ago and was registered for the European tournaments. Defender Maicon also returns to the squad, who served his suspension for the red card in the return leg with Apoel.
For Braga, Jonatas Noro is definitely out, as he has been recovering from an Achilles injury for a long time. Mario Dogreles is also questionable, having been injured in the first leg, but is still expected to be included in the group. The team's latest signing, Pau Victor, who joined from Barcelona for 12 million plus bonuses, should be available for the match.