Levski Sofia’s goalkeeper Nikolay Mihailov issued an apology to the fans in his first interview since the ill-fated match against Ħamrun Spartans in the third round of the UEFA Europa Conference League.
Mihailov, who is also captain of the Bulgarian side, was heavily criticised for his two mistakes that enabled the Spartans to score on both occasions.
Speaking to Bulgarian media, Mihailov apologised to the fans while thanking them for their support in recent months when the club was going through a difficult period.
“The truth is that the pain, disappointment and shock were great after Thursday’s match,” Mihailov admitted.
“I really still cannot tell what happened in the whole match and if I have to rewatch the game, I would say blame bad luck on our elimination.
“I think in the two games against PAOK and in the first leg against Ħamrun Spartans, we showed that we can play good football but on that particular day, things did not work out as we wanted, both offensively and defensively.
The biggest regret and pain for me is that we disappointed our fans.”
Asked about his judgement on the two goals he conceded, Mihailov said that they were both the consequence of collective mistakes.
“The truth is that when you get a goal, no matter if it’s one, two or more, and no matter how important the game is, for me you could have always done better,” the Levski Sofia goalkeeper said.
“There were collective mistakes in both games. Then, in extra-time we could have scored but we did not and I managed to save the fifth penalty, but a retake was ordered. Everything went wrong for us on Thursday.”
Mihailov also spoke about Levski Sofia’s protest about the referee’s technical error in Ħamrun’s kick-off which led to Ryan Camenzuli’s goal.
The outcome on the protest is expected by latest Tuesday morning.
“I don’t know how to comment on this thing because I am not familiar with such situations and about when UEFA should respond.” he explained.
“The fact, though, is that there is huge infringement there. That’s one of the reasons we conceded the second goal.”
