Dundalk 0 - 2 Levski Sofia
Credit:
Dundalk had been written off by everyone for this game but to their credit they put in a fine, albeit losing display against technically wonderful opposition. Two first half goals from rangy French striker Darra Dembele was enough to copper fasten this tie for the Bulgarian team.
The Lilywhites opened quite brightly and Miller slapped a 20 yard effort on goal in the third minute but the Levski skipper Georgi Petkov dealt with it easily.
The fragile Dundalk defensive line was punctured after just four minutes as Levski worked the ball at speed through midfield to find the feet of Dembele on the edge of the box. He turned to his left to lose his marker and slotted low past Peter Cherrie to the Scotsman’s right.
Yordan Miliev had a chance to double the lead on ten minutes as Vladimir Gadzhev found him with a corner from the left but he put his header well over. Volleyed efforts from Daniel Mladenov and Veselin Minev were fired wide as the Bulgarians enforced their superiority.
Tom Miller nearly snatched a goal from nothing on 32 minutes as he got on the end of a Garry Breen clearance to try to lob Patkov from an acute angle but he was off target.
The second goal arrived on 33 minutes as a free was given against Stephen McDonnell 35-40 yards from goal in a central position. Vladimir Ghadzhev lined up an effort and hammered a shot with a bit of swerve on it, Cherrie saw it coming all the way but sadly dropped the ball at the feet of Dembele who gratefully poked home from inside the six yard box.
Mladenov had a long range effort that was gathered at the second attempt by a jittery Cherrie in the Dundalk goal. He linked up well with Darko Tesevski on 77 minutes to see Cherrie save with his legs and the same duo combined on 88 with Cherrie again saving.
The goal that a fighting Dundalk effort deserved was denied them on 90 minutes as Wayne Hatswell came back in from off the pitch to head across goal for Miller to finish sadly the Turkish ref decided that Hatswell had been in an offside position.
So it’s back to League football for Dundalk and hopefully with Liam Burns soon to return brighter times ahead.
Dundalk: Peter Cherrie; Michael Synott, Wayne Hatswell, Garry Breen, Ciaran McGuigan; Stephen Maher, Tom Miller, Stephen McDonnell, Fahrudin Kudozovic, Ross Gaynor; Steven Lennon (Tiarnan Mulvenna 70).
Subs not used: Matt Gregg, Alan Cawley, Neale Fenn, Mark Griffn, Jonathan Breen
Levski Sofia: Georgi Patkov; Veselin Miniev, Ivo Ivanov, Yordan Miliev, Dustley Mulder; Joao Ramos Dos Santos (Aleksander Kirov 70), Lachezar Baltanov, Vladimir Gadzhev ( Mariyan Ognyanov 61), Daniel Mladenov; Garra Dembele (Isa Mustafa 56), Darko Tasevski.
Subs not used: Mitrev Bojidar, Alex Aleksandrov, Elvin Topuzakov, Georgi Hristov
Referee: Firat Aydinus
Attendance: 1,000 (estimate)
extratime.ie Man of the Match: Stephen Maher (Dundalk)
