European cups

“Slavia”’s achievements in the European club competitions for the period 1948-2020

The European club tournaments emerge as competitions between the champions, cup winners and medalists of the European national championships. During the years these competitions underwent changes in their format but essentially the original idea was preserved. The oldest is The Champions League. It started in 1956 and until the season of 1991/92 was played by the principle of direct elimination in two matches on mutual visits. Only later the idea of playing in groups was adopted. The “whites” do not participate in the competition for The European Champions Cup (ECC) and the succeeding it Champions League. When “Slavia” won its first champion medals, the continental championship was not yet established. When winning its only post-war award, our country was with very low coefficient and the national winner played in the UEFA Cup.        

The Cup Winners' Cup’s (CWC) life-span was from 1961 to 1999. Of course, the participants in this competition were the national winners or the finalists of the respective country. In this tournament “Slavia” plays its historic semi-final in 1967. This position remains the greatest achievement of a club of our country in European competitions. The record remains until today. 

The tournament for the UEFA Cup was established in 1958. The participants in this competition are European teams placed in the top positions in the national championships. Initially the competition was called The Inter-Cities Fairs Cup (ICFC) but since 1971 onwards officially bears the name UEFA Cup. Since the season of 1999/2000 the competition for The Cup Winners' Cup’s (CWC) is a part of it and now the trophy is called “UEFA - Procup”. Since the summer of 2009 the competition is referred to “Europa League”.  

“Slavia” played 19 times in The European club tournaments and achieved the following results: 

Season                   Rival                     Results               Round

1963/64 "MTK" (Budapest, Hungary) 0:1 and 1:1 CWC 1/16 final

1964/65 "Cork City" (Eire) 1:1 and 2:0 CWC 1/16 final

              "Lausannesport" (Switzerland) 1:0, 1:2 and 2:3 CWC 1/8 final

1966/67 "Swansea City” (Wales) 1:1 and 4:0 CWC 1/16 final

              "Racing" (Strasbourg, France) 0:1 and 2:0 CWC 1/8 final

              "Servette" (Geneva, Switzerland) 0:1 and 3:0 CWC 1/4 final

             "Rangers" (Glasgow,Scotland) 0:1 and 0:1 CWC 1/2 final

1968/69 "Aberdeen" (Scotland) 0:0 and 0:2 ICFC Preliminary round

1969/70 "Valencia" (Spain) 2:0 and 1:1 ICFC Preliminary round

              "Kilmarnock " (Scotland) 1:4 and 2:0 ICFC  1/16 final

1970/71 "Hajduk" (Split, Croatia) 1:0 and 0:3 ICFC  1/32 final

1972/73 " Schalke-04" (Germany) 1:2 and 1:3 CWC   1/16 final

1973/74 "Dinamo" (Tbilisi, Georgia) 1:4 and 2:0 UEFA  1/32 final

1975/76 "Sturm" (Graz, Austria) 1:3 and 1:0 CWC  1/16 final

1980/81 "Legia" (Warsaw, Poland) 3:1 and 0:1 CWC  1/16 final

              "Sparta" (Prague, The Czech Republic) 0:2 and 3:0 CWC  1/8 final

             "Feyenoord " (Rotterdam, Netherlands) 3:2 and 0:4 CWC  1/4 final

1982/83 "Sarajevo" (Bosnia and Herzegovina) 2:2 and 2:4 UEFA 1/32 final

1988/89 "Partizan" (Belgrade, Serbia) 0:5 и 0:5 УЕФА  1/32 финал

1990/91 "Omonia" (Nicosia, Cypress) 2:1 and 2:4 UEFA 1/32 final

1991/92 "Osasuna" (Pamplona, Spain) 1:0 and0:4 UEFA 1/32 final

1995/96 "Olympiakos" (Athens, Greece) 0:2 and0:1 UEFA 1/32 final

1996/97 "Inkaras" (Kaunas, Lithuania) 4:3 and1:1 UEFA Preliminary round

              "Tirol" (Innsbruck, Austria) 1:1 and 1:4 UEFA 1/32 final

2016/2017 "Zaglebie" (Lubin, Poland)  1:0 and 0:3  Europa League 1st qual. round

2018/2019  "Ilves" (Tampere, Finland)  2:1 and 1:0  Europa League 1st qual. round

                  "Hajduk" (Split, Croatia)   2:3 and 0:1   Europa League 2nd qual. round

2020/2021   "Kukesi" (Abania)     Europa League 1st qual. round   1:2      

Note: In every entry above the first result is the one in Bulgaria.      

Balance

Tournament     Participation     Games     Victories     Draws     Losses     Goal Difference

CWC                           6                   25                 9            3            13             31:31

UEFA                          7                    16                 4            3             9              18:41

ICFC                           3                     8                 3            2             3               8:10

EL                              3                     6                  3            0             4                7:10

Total                        19                    55                19            8            29              64:92

Greatest Successes:

Semi-finalist: - once – in 1967

1/4 finalist: - once- in 1981

Emphases:

• “Slavia” play its first match in the European club tournaments on 2^ndOctober, 1963. The debut is on the 1/16 final in the tournament for the CWC in Budapest against the strong at the moment team of MTK. The Hungarians win with a minimal victory – 1:0.
• The following players take part in “Slavia”’s debut in Europe: Stephen Pashoolov, Stoyan Aleksiev, Peter Velichkov, Peter Panagonov, Ivan Davidov, Peter Petrov, Michail Mishev, Emanuil Manolov, Anton Krystev, Alexander Vasilev, and George Bor. Gugalov. 
• The first goal for “Slavia” is scored by Michail Mishev on 9^thOctober, 1963 in Sofia against MTK (Budapest) – 1:1
• The last goal for “Slavia” in the European competittions is scored by Georgi Yomov on 2nd ^August, 2018 at home against the Croatian team “Hajduk” in UEFA Europa League second qualifying round.
• The player who scored most goals for the “whites” in the European tournaments is Iliya Velichkov. He scores a total of five goals.
• A total of 38 “Slavia” players score goals in the European competitions.
• Alexander Shalamanov is the player who participated in most matches on the terrains of the Old continent – a total of 21 games.
• A total of 139 players are part of “Slavia”’s team in the European tournaments.
• Six foreigner footballers play for “Slavia” in the UEFA competitions – the Brazilian Ruggerio Pereira, the Kenyan Aboud Omar, the Russians Nikita Sergeyev and Serder Serderov, the Greek Antonis Steriakis and the Serbian Aleksander Stanisavlevic.
• “Slavia” is the first Bulgarian team to play in a semi-final of a European club tournament. This happened on 8^thMarch, 1967. No other Bulgarian football team has ever outdone “Slavia” in this achievement. The semi-finals for The National Cups Cup against the “Rangers” (Glasgow) are played in Sofia on 19^thApril and in Glasgow on 3th May. 

“Slavia”’s balance distributed by countries is as follows:

Country     Matches     Victories    Draws        Losses        G/D

Scotland      6                 1                 1                 4                 3:8

Switzerland  5                 2                 0                 3                 7:6

Spain          4                 2                 1                 1                 4:5

Austria        4                 1                 1                 2                 4:8

Poland        4                 2                  0                 2                 4:5

Wales          2                 1                 1                 0                 5:1

Ireland        2                 1                 1                 0                 3:1

Lithuania     2                 1                 1                 0                 5:4

The Czech   2                 1                 0                 1                 3:2

Republic    

France         2                 1                 0                 1                 2:1

Cypress      2                 1                 0                 1                 4:5    

Georgia       2                 1                 0                 1                 3:4

Croatia        4                 1                 0                 3                 3:7

Netherlands 2                  1                0                 1                 3:6

Hungary      2                 0                 1                 1                 1:2

Bosnia         2                 0                 1                 1                 4:6

Germany     2                 0                 0                 2                 2:5    

Greece        2                 0                 0                 2                 0:3

Serbia         2                 0                 0                 2                 0:10

Finland        2                  2                0                 0                  3:1

Albania        1                  0               0                  1                  1:2

Total:          56               19               8                 29               64:92

Note: The results are arranged on the basis of played games and achieved results against the respective country. The countries are written in their modern names.