CSKA Sofia

Ground: Stadion Bulgarska Armia

Visits: 1

Date: 22nd July 2017

Match: CSKA Sofia - Ludogorets Razgrad 0-1 (Parva profesionalna liga)

Attendance: 7 300

The biggest game on this trip was CSKA Sofia v Ludogorets Razgrad. Ludogorets have won the league title in Bulgaria six years in a row, which is impressive considering they have only played six seasons in the top flight. Nowadays there is a big rivalry with CSKA Sofia who have won the Bulgarian league title (a record) 31 times as well as 20 cup titles. CSKA Sofia play at Stadion Bulgarska Armia (Bulgarian Army Stadium) and that ground is situated in the same park as the National Stadium Vasil Levski. It only takes 5 minutes or so to walk from one ground to the other. With temperatures to reach 32 °C I decided to take it easy and in all I only visited two museums today, including the Museum of Socialist Art where there were plenty of Lenin statues. First thing I did today was to go to Stadion Bulgarska Armia though. From the outside it looks really ran-down and as I was closing in on the main stand I was told by security to turn around. I asked where to buy Biljety and he pointed towards the fan shop. Inside the fan shop there were t-shirts with the text CSKA Hooligan combined with a big red star available. Hooligan Army CSKA Sofia t-shirts were also on sale. Tempting but I decided to only buy a ticket for the main stand. I then went on to the Sofia museum and the Socialist Art museum before returning to the air condition in my room.

Kick-off was at 9pm and as I arrived 75 minutes or so before kick-off the areas around the ground were buzzing with fans in red shirts. Maybe I should have bought one of those t-shirts after all, to melt in. Stadion Bulgarska Armia was opened in 1923 and has a capacity of around 22 500. As I said earlier the ground feels old and ran-down and is certainly a proper old-school eastern European football ground. My seat was next to the CSKA end and once the game started the home curve was packed. In total 7 300, a very good attendance for league football in Bulgaria, was inside Stadion Bulgarska Armia this evening. Ludogorets Razgrad brought around 30 fans and in the 49th minute the could celebrate as a defensive mix-up in CSKA meant 0-1 in this game. 13 yellow cards and one red card in this game but no more goals meaning an important win for the visitors from northern Bulgaria. The actual game was poor but the atmosphere created from the CSKA fans was excellent. Non-stop vocal support with pyros, bangers, smoke bombs and tifos. At least the ultras can be proud of their effort tonight!