On the beautiful stadium in the city, on an extremely muddy and heavy pitch for play, the Bulgarian army men undeservedly lost 0:1 against the Swedish champion „Malmö“ in the first match of the European Cup tournament.

At the very beginning, CSNA played smartly and its attackers more and more often began to find themselves near Kristensson's goal. With every minute, the pressure grew. In midfield, Panayotov collected balls rebounded from the Swedish goal and sent them down both flanks. However, the sharpness of our attacks diminished in front of the penalty area. The first half ended with a clear dominance of CSNA.

In the 32nd minute, during a heavy collision, Rakarov was injured and was unable to continue the game, which he definitively left after the first half. This affected the psychological state of our players and their attacks were blunted. Right winger Romanov was moved back as a right defender. Now CSNA's attackers were unable to repeat their successful performances from the first half and their play faded. The defense, though crippled, fought selflessly. This for a few minutes maintained the impression that CSNA dominated. But Nordqvist went to his usual post as left winger and in Rakarov's absence had the opportunity to break through more easily. Gradually, „Malmö“ established dominance. Attack after attack followed towards Naydenov's penalty area. But here the inability of the Swedish attackers to score also became apparent. Nevertheless, about 10 minutes before the end, when CSNA really had the chance to hold a draw, from a ball that accidentally fell in front of Naydenov's goal, Karlsson (10) managed to meet it from the air and score the only goal of the match — 1:0 for „Malmö“.

What did the two teams show?

„Malmö“ played under much better conditions. It is enough to mention that for nearly an hour of the game, they had a numerically inferior opponent. The final defense was solid. The midfielders outperformed ours. The attackers played with positional changes and sharp cuts down the flanks, but without sending dangerous shots towards Naydenov. The team's play was stable and firm, without being rough in the slightest. Rakarov's injury [unclear text].

And now a few words about our republican champion. In goal, Naydenov successfully dealt with what the defense allowed to reach him. The defenders were stable, firm, entered duels bravely and usually won the fight for the „first ball“. The most responsible and difficult task was assigned to Panayotov. He was the link and organizer of the team. This was a thankless, but useful job for the other players. In attack, however, there was a lack of understanding in the second half. We often observed „little games“, dribbling and excessive ball carrying, unsuitable for the heavy pitch. In the first half there was a tendency for sharp counter-attacks, but in the second 45 minutes we witnessed a broken game.

It is also worth noting the fact that at the beginning of the match, a powerfully struck ball towards „Malmö“'s goal was stopped behind the goal line by Kristensson, but the referee Kandel Binder, who otherwise officiated relatively objectively, did not recognize the correctly scored goal.

There should be no doubt that in the second match, which will take place in Sofia under better conditions, in a different atmosphere and with a full CSNA squad, the result will undoubtedly be favorable for our army men. After all, they had a two-goal deficit against „Juventus“ and crushed them in Sofia. We believe that CSNA will mobilize again to secure its participation in the quarter-finals.

source newspaper „Naroden Sport“, no. 1926, 03.11.1960

• [1] — the names of the opposition players, referee and players that are not in our profile database are automaticaly transliterated from cyrillic and may differ from the original spelling