![\"Liam](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0024abd0-614.jpg\"\/)
\nLiam Boyce celebrates with Derry City team-mates against CSKA Sofia<\/p>\n
Derry City kept their Europa League hopefuls alive thanks to a late James Olayinka header.<\/p>\n
Although the Candystripes suffered a 3-2 loss to CSKA Sofia in the first qualifying round first leg, the midfielder’s late header means it’s all to play for next week’s return leg at the Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium.<\/p>\n
Stunning goals from Ioannis Pittas and Bruno Jordao, with Liam Boyce netting in between gave the Bulgarians the lead at the break, before their Cypriot striker scored his second in the night early in the second half, but it was Olayinka’s late header which keeps the tie alive.<\/p>\n
City incredibly gave debuts to recent signings Christy Grogan and Ellis Chapman, despite the pair only having a few training sessions with their new team-mates.<\/p>\n
As for CSKA, who are still in pre-season and have only played a number of friendlies, they gave Argentinian striker Leandro Godoy his competitive debut after joining only a few weeks ago from Beroe and former Inter Milan midfielder Stefano Sensi was also in the starting eleven.<\/p>\n
Derry started the encounter on the front foot and nearly netted with their first corner but Michael Duffy’s inswinging effort from the left was well punched away by goalkeeper Fedor Lapoukhov.<\/p>\n
The visitor’s goalkeeper Brian Maher had to make a smart save on 17 minutes, diving low to his left as he managed to get his finger tips to Pittas’ angled drive.<\/p>\n
Sensi’s resulting right-wing corner was deflected to the back post to Pittas and the Cyprus frontman chested the ball down before superbly lifting the ball over Maher into the opposite corner of the net.<\/p>\n
Derry silenced the home fans just after the half-hour mark as Boyce equalised when the frontman found space inside the box, after Duffy’s clever thinking to take a free-kick quickly picked out the Belfast man, who despite not the cleanest of strikes had enough to beat Lapukhov.<\/p>\n
\nLiam Boyce celebrates with Derry City team-mates against CSKA Sofia<\/p>\n
CSKA went back in front 41 minutes with another spectacular strike, this time captain Jordao rifled the ball high into Maher’s top left right-hand corner from 20 yards, after Sensi had cushioned the ball back to the midfielder.<\/p>\n
Pittas netted his second goal of the night after Derry gave him the freedom of the Levski Stadium, as the frontman picked up possession inside his own half from Lapoukhov, before running some 50 yards and feeding Pastor, who calmly cut the ball back for the Cypriot to side foot home from 10 yards.<\/p>\n
On 64 minutes Derry gave another debut to a recent signing with Dutch midfielder Nick Twisk replacing Cameron Dummigan, as they tried to get themselves back into the first leg encounter.<\/p>\n
Derry thought they netted a second on 67 minutes as Duffy’s clever flick found Boyce inside the box, his left-footed shot beat Lapoukhov and nestled in the bottom corner, but the assistant had his flag up and the goal was ruled out.<\/p>\n
The visitors went close to scoring a second on 83 minutes, but after neat skill on the edge of the box, Boyce’s curling strike was goal-bound but took a massive deflection just past the post.<\/p>\n
Derry deservedly pulled a goal back on 88 minutes as Barry Cotter’s right-wing cross picked out Patrick McClean at the back post, his downward header into the six yard box found Olayinka, who headed home from close range.<\/p>\n
CSKA Sofia: Fedor Lapoukhov, Pastor, Facundo Rodriguez, Teodor Ivanov, Angelo Martino; Petko Panayotov, Bruno Jordao, Stefano Sensi (Alejandro Piedrahita 85); Isaac Solet (Mohamed Brahimi 72), Leandro Godnoy (Joel Zwarts 72), Ioannis Pittas.<\/p>\n
Derry City: Brian Maher, Conor Barr, Christy Grogan, Patrick McClean, Rob Slevin (James McClean 83); Barry Cotter, Cameron Dummigan (Nick Twisk 64), James Olayinka, Michael Duffy; Ellis Chapman, Liam Boyce.<\/p>\n
Referee: Visar Kastrati (Kosovo).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Derry City kept their Europa League hopefuls alive thanks to a late James Olayinka header. Although the Candystripes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":541738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-541737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=541737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/541738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}