Bulgaria's Levski football team suffered a humiliating 1:3 defeat by arch-rivals CSKA at the start of the new second season of the national football championship.

CSKA came out at the break leading 0:1, after a 33rd minute goal by Brazilian Michel Platini Ferreira Mesquita, who scored again at the start of the second half.

At the break, police had to push out the CSKA supporters from the stadium after they started wreaking havoc.

Then CSKA's Apostol Popov tripled his team's result, by scoring again in the 66th minute.

The game was played out against an excited 15,000-strong crowd in Levski's Georgi Asparuhov stadium in Sofia.

Ahead of the match commentators have pointed out Levski as the favorite, with CSKA having problems with key players. To boot, Levski has a strong record as a host against rivals CSKA, their last home loss being in 1985.

Sofia police have taken all precautionary measures to safeguard order during the event and have already arrested 8 youths before the start of the match.

During Saturday afternoon, street traffic in parts of Sofia was blocked by crowds of Levski and CSKA supporters marching to the stadium

Taking into account Saturday's game, the two Sofia teams have played 174 games total against each other, with Levski holding 76 wins, against CSKA's 52 wins, and 45 draws.

With 16 games played this far the championship, Levski is second with 32 points, while CSKA is fifth with 29. Litex Lovech is at the helm with 37 points, but has only 15 games played.