The teams of Arda and HIC ended in a draw with a score of 0:0 in a duel from the second preliminary round of the Conference League, sportal.bg reported.
The match in Kardzhali was led by the head referee Bulat Sariev and was played in front of just over 4,000 spectators. The Bulgarian team may regret missing the opportunity to defeat HIC. The boys of coach Alexander Tunchev were more active and created enough goal chances to congratulate themselves on success. Alas, the accuracy in front of goal betrayed Arda.
So far, the hosts have had two matches from the European tournaments in their club history - both lost to nil. In 2022, the team from "Arena Arda" lost 0:2 and 0:4 to the Israeli Hapoel (Beer Sheva) and left the same tournament on the same foot.
For its part, HIK had serious difficulties in the first preliminary round of the competition. The 33-time champion of Finland was surprisingly defeated 0:4 by the representative of the Faroe Islands NSI Runavik, but in the return match in Helsinki it improved with 5:0 after extra time.
The opening minutes of the match were completely dictated by the hosts. The problem was that Alexander Tunchev's boys had difficulty creating a goal position. In the 17th minute, Arda organized a good attack on the right flank. Karagaren passed to Serkan Usein, who returned the gesture with a five. Karagaren looked for a shot to the far corner, where goalkeeper Naijus intervened brilliantly with a dive.
Immediately after that, the ball was crossed into the HIK penalty area, where Georgi Nikolov jumped over a defender, but the visitors' goalkeeper knocked the ball out for a corner.
In the 19th minute, the hosts showed a well-learned position, which resulted in a shot by Antonio Vutov, but it was extremely inaccurate. In the 23rd minute, the main referee gave the players the opportunity to cool down in view of the hot weather in Kardzhali. The two teams faced each other at 39 degrees.
Exactly in the last minute of the first half, a gross mistake in HIK's defense could have been punished by Arda. The ball fell to Birsent Karagaren, who saw the goalkeeper's exit and tried to pass it, but the goalkeeper raised his hands and caught the ball.
The second half also started strongly for Arda. A long-range shot by Lacho Kotev in the 51st minute went wide of the post and excited the home fans. In the 66th minute, new signing Svetoslav Kovachev entered the field, replacing Antonio Vutov.
A quarter of an hour before the end of the match, HIK looked at Arda's goal. Giorgos Antzoulas shot with a header, but it was offside.
In the 78th minute, Arda squandered another good opportunity to score. Velkovski got involved on the left flank and crossed sharply, and Birsent Karagaren headed the ball in. The ball bounced off his colleague Ivan Tilev's body and went out of play.
In the 88th minute, Arda came close to scoring his own goal. Ivan Tilev showed an eye for the game and with a wonderful cutting pass brought Lacho Kotev into the penalty area. Arda's midfielder looked for a shot in the near corner, but his shot lacked the necessary accuracy. In the added five minutes, Arda added another shot to the statistics. It was the work of Lacho Kotev from a serious distance, but this time the HIC goalkeeper was careful.
ARDA - HIC 0:0
Starting lineups:
ARDA: 1. Gospodinov, 21. Velev, 93. Eboa, 18. Huseinov, 35. Velkovski, 20. Usein, 39. Vutov, 80. Kotev, 33. Tilev, 99. Karagaren, 9. Nikolov;
HIC: 25. Naijus, 28. Ilitova, 3. Antsoulas, 6. Tikanen, 2. Lyons-Foster, 8. Kanellopoulos, 4. Ring, 10. Lingman, 99. Mitchell, 7. Hostika, 20, Puki.