Most of the first matches of the second preliminary round of the Conference League were played last night, sportal.bg reported. The Bulgarian representatives could not congratulate themselves with victories. Arda drew 0-0 in Kardzhali with the Finnish HIK, and Cherno More lost 0:1 to Istanbul Basaksehir in Razgrad.
There was Bulgarian participation in two more matches. Yanis Karabelov was the starter for Partizan, which defeated Oleksandria 2:0 on neutral ground in Poland. "The Gravediggers" were considered underdogs in the match due to their extremely young squad, but they achieved an excellent result with goals from Bogdan Kostić and Ognen Ugrešić.
Matin Paskalev came on as a substitute for FK Sarajevo, who won 2-1 against Universitatja (Craiova). The match between "Koševo" in the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina was played in front of over 20,000 spectators, and the hosts failed to take an even better lead before the return match in Romania next week.
Santa Coloma provided another big surprise. The Andorran team won 2-1 against Ukrainian Polissya (Zhytomyr), and after a turnaround. In the previous round, Santa Coloma eliminated Borac (Banja Luka), and in general, since the beginning of the season, the Andorran representatives have already won five European tournaments.
AZ Alkmaar failed in their visit to the Finnish Ilves and lost 3:4. Sparta (Prague) lost 1:2 to the Kazakh Aktobe. The victory of the Northern Irish Dungannon with 1:0 over Vaduz can be described as a sensation, while Brondby only managed 1:1 in their visit to HB Torshavn.