Botev (Plovdiv) hosts the Greek Panathinaikos in a rematch of the second qualifying round of Europa League, reported sportal.bg.
The match at the “Hristo Botev“ starts at 9:00 p.m. and in it, the people of Plovdiv will have to erase a passive after losing 1:2 in the first match. The winner of the pair will face Ajax in the next round.
A plus for Botev is that he will enjoy great support from the stands. Tickets are sold out and around 18,000 people are expected to support coach Dusan Kerkez's boys.
A week ago, Botev showed that he has his chances to eliminate the Panathinaikos team, which is far more successful at the European and local level. Despite trailing by two goals in Greece, the “Canaries” scored an important goal through Alen Koroshets, which made today's match intriguing.
A considerable boost of confidence for Dusan Kerkez's players could also come from the fact that Botev is on an incredible home run in European tournaments. It is not only about meetings at the College, but also at the “Vasil Levski” stadium. in Sofia, “Lazur“ in Burgas, as well as the “Plovdiv“ stadium. In all these places, Botev accumulated a streak of 12 consecutive home runs without a loss in European club tournaments.
This is the second longest streak in the history of Bulgarian participation in Europe. Only CSKA has a longer streak. “The Reds“ went on a 19-game unbeaten run from their debut in 1956 until their first defeat at home 1-0 to Chelsea in 1970. In this period, CSKA recorded 14 wins and 5 draws with a goal ratio of 58:19.
For the visitors, Wilhena and Schenkefeld, who are suffering from gastroenteritis, remained out of the group for today's match. The two were starters in the first match with Botev.
BOTEV (PLOVDIV) - PANATHINAIKOS
Europa League, II preliminary round
Botev: Bernat, Minkov, Conte, Tam, Baloyianis, Eto'O, Perera, Akere, Popov, Nwachukwu, Udzha
Panathinaikos: Drongovski, Vagianidis, Ingason, Jedvaj, Mladenovic, Maksimovic, Arao, Djuricic, Bakasetas, Mancini, Jerembev