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Levski Sofia Garra Dembele (L) vies for the ball with Per Karlsson of AIK during their UEFA Europa League play-off second leg soccer match Sofia, Bulgaria, 26 August 2010. Photo by EPA/BGNES
Bulgarian great Levski Sofia advanced to Europa League's group stage after beating Swedish champions AIK 2:1 at home Thursday night.
Although there were fears of hooligan retaliation in Sofia after last Thursday Swedish supporters attacked Levski's bus in Stockholm when the two teams tied 0:0, the audience at the Sofia match remained peaceful but jubilant.
Levski, who ranked third at the last Bulgarian national football championship, was losing the first half 0:1 due to an early goal by AIK's Mohamed Bangura, who took advantage of a grave error of Levski goalie Bozhidar Mitrev.
But then after the break Levski braced and slipped two fast goals past AIK's Ivan Turina - by Daniel Mladenov (48') and Gara Dembele (49'). The Bulgarian team went on to dominate the rest of the second half and confidently won 2:1.
Some minor misdemeanor was reported among the 23,000 ecstatic Levski supporters at Sofia's Georgi Asparuhov stadium, but the Swedish team and its representatives were not attacked, as had been feared. Only 26 AIK fans were present at Thursday's game.
AIK's coach Alex Miller went to praise rivals Levski.
In the other two Bulgarian Europa League playoff matches, Bulgaria's 2009-2010 second CSKA Sofia went for an inglorious 2:2 draw with Welsh champions TNS, but went on to the group stage after a prior 3:0 win at home in Sofia.
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