Gisdol's CSKA Sofia lose 2-1 to Monaco – "The performance was great"
German coach Markus Gisdol's CSKA Sofia lost 2-1 to AS Monaco in their Conference League opener. Both Monaco goals came before half-time; CSKA pulled one back late.
Archive image · Photo: Wiöldcard / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped and resized)
CSKA Sofia narrowly lost their Conference League opener: on Thursday evening the Bulgarian club were beaten 2-1 by French Ligue 1 leaders AS Monaco in their first Conference League group match. According to the BTA news agency, Paris Brunner and Ansu Fati put Monaco 2-0 up before half-time. Substitute Joel Zwarts pulled one back with a header in the 76th minute.
CSKA are coached by German Markus Gisdol. After the match he drew a mixed conclusion, according to Bulgarian public broadcaster BNT: the result was not good, but the performance was great. BTA also credited CSKA with a very good display, although Monaco started several players who rarely feature in the league.
Notably, according to BTA, CSKA's starting line-up did not include a single Bulgarian player; Teodor Ivanov and Petko Panayotov began on the bench. CSKA's next Conference League match is in about a week, away at Danish club FC Nordsjælland.