published: thursday 17 september 2009, 22.45cet pfc cska sofia 1-1 fulham fc
a cool finish from diomansy kamara cancelled out a debut goal from michel to earn the english visitors a group e point.
a cool finish from diomansy kamara cancelled out a debut goal from michel and ensured fulham fc took a point from their uefa europa league group e visit to pfc cska sofia.
quick equaliser following an uneventful first half, michel – a recent signing from pfc chernomorets burgas – capped a lively start to the second period for cska with a neat strike after 62 minutes. however, no sooner had the celebrations of the home crowd died down then the londoners were level thanks to kamara, who lured goalkeeper ıvan karadzhov out of his area and slid the ball in from a difficult angle.
noisy surroundings there home support reached a crescendo at the vasil levski national stadium as the game got under way and viktors morozs would have further ramped up the decibel levels inside two minutes had he connected with ıvan stoyanov's inswinging delivery. save for that early warning there was little to concern the premier league outfit, whose first attempt on goal arrived ten minutes before the break when christopher smalling headed a corner over the crossbar.
greening effort at the other end stoyanov forced david stockdale into a save at his near post, but it was the cottagers who ended the half in the ascendency as jonathan greening cut the ball back for simon davies to fire straight at karadzhov. cska introduced marquinhos at the break and, having delivered two teasing crosses into the area, the brazilian chested the ball off for his compatriot michel to hook the ball past stockdale from the edge of the area.
kamara goal the lead lasted all of three minutes, though, as kamara beat karadzhov and kept his composure to slide the ball into the unguarded net. luboslav penev's charges immediately went about regaining the lead and only the quick reflexes of stockdale denied yordan todorov after marquinhos had driven the ball across goal.
