The Reds defeated Pirin 3-0 in their first home game of the campaign.
CSKA welcomed Pirin in their first efbet League home match for the 2023/24 season. Atanas Ribarski made 5 changes compared to the 2:1 victory over Levski at the start of the campaign. And here is the 11 for the Army: Naumov - Gurishta, Petrov, Heliton, Orachev - Daskalov, Umarbaev - Karagaren, Stoichkov, Pedriño - Kjartanson.
CSKA started the match very actively and the first good situation occurred in the 6th minute. Karagaren crossed sharply into Pirin's penalty area, but Icelandic center forward Kjartansson stayed under the ball. Just a minute later, he found himself in a superb position and headed home from Orachev's cross, but his shot went inches wide of Kovalev's goal.
In the 9th minute, Stoyan Stoichkov opened the scoring. The young footballer broke through from the right and with a very nice shot did not leave a chance to the goalkeeper of Pirin 1:0.
This was followed by a good intervention by Daniel Naumov, who dealt with Medved's shot.
In the 20th minute, after a corner by Pedrinho, there was a mix-up and a player of the guests played with his hand, and the head referee pointed to the penalty spot. Pedrinho stood behind the ball and precisely converted for 2:0. For the Brazilian, this is the second goal since the beginning of the campaign, after he also scored in Levski's goal.
In the 36th minute, Heliton came close to scoring, but his header from a corner kick went wide.
The first clean sheet in the second half was for Pirin. A cross from a corner caused a stir in the CSKA penalty area, Gezim Pepsi proved to be the smartest, but shot inaccurately.
In the 78th minute, a good action by CSKA went through Karagaren, who tried a pass to Antonio Vutov, but the defense in green handled it.
Seconds after that, another good attack by the Reds ended with a shot by Rusev, but after a ricochet, the ball went into a corner kick. There was no danger from his performance, but CSKA's press allowed the ball to be taken away very quickly, Thalis passed to Gurishta, and he assisted Heliton, who could not make a mistake from close range. During the VAR check, it turned out that there was an ambush and the hit was cancelled.
In the 90th minute, Georgi Rusev scored for 3:0, after a cross from a corner.
Until the end, CSKA controlled the events on the field and Atanas Rybarski's players achieved a second consecutive victory since the beginning of the season and will enter the match with FCSB in high spirits.
