The new, ninth meeting of a Montenegrin club with a Bulgarian one on the European stage and another opportunity to contact our old friend, journalist Teodor Borisov, an excellent connoisseur of Bulgarian, European, and Montenegrin football - the whole ex-Yu. This student from Zagreb speaks our language perfectly, which is why he was a help to most of the Montenegrin clubs that arrive in Bulgaria - a translator at the official press conference, etc.
Today, however, he will not be at the "Vasil Levski" stadium in Sofia, because he has just arrived from a long football journey - from Canada, and is preparing for a new one - in Finland.
Borisov, however, introduced tonight's rival Budućnost.
CSKA 1948 reached Europe by winning against CSKA Sofia in the playoffs. The 2:0 victory remained in the background because of the big riots made by the CSKA fans.
Briefly about the club...
- In recent years, it has established itself as one of the more financially stable in Bulgaria, which supports three teams in different divisions. However, in the spring, our assembly passed a law banning the advertising of bookmakers in the media, which led to reduced investments by all bookmakers in clubs, and the main sponsor of CSKA 1948 is the bookmaker Efbet. Nevertheless, the team qualified for European competitions, and at the beginning of the new season they played 0:0 as a guest against the Black Sea team - a team that lost only two points at home the previous season. The success of CSKA 1948 is due to coach Valentin Iliev, the son of the famous 80's goalkeeper Ilija Valov, who died a week ago, while his son was training with CSKA 1948 in Slovenia. It is interesting that Iliev is an exceptional Orthodox believer and that he combines his work as a coach with that of a priest in the church.
What is the playing staff like?
- The team left the hero of the game against CSKA Pedrinho, who went to Konjaspor, as well as goalkeeper Daniel Naumov. I can't say that the team got some incredible reinforcements, but you have to pay attention to experienced players like captain Radoslav Kirilov, then Birsent Karagaren and Parvizdon Umarbaev.
What are the chances of the Future?
- It is known that the Montenegrin team has never eliminated the Bulgarian team and I don't think it will happen now either. As far as I followed last season, the situation in Budućnost is not ideal. The only advantage for your team is more experience in Europe, as CSKA 1948 played only two games against Romanian FCSB a year ago.
What are the ambitions of CSKA 1948 in Europe?
- If they eliminated Buducnost, they would take a step further compared to last season. But when you look at the results during the preparations - 2:6 against Dinamo Zagreb, 1:2 against Maribor, 0:3 against Olimpija, you can see that the team is not yet ready for the start of the season. In my opinion, it would be a disaster if CSKA 1948 did not advance.
No fans, no pressure...
- The boss creates enough pressure. He is full of ambition and often changes coaches. As far as that is concerned, the majority is turned towards CSKA from Sofia, of course.
Bonus video:
