Spartak Pleven secured a 3:2 victory over Hebar 1918 in the Second League Regular Season round 8 on Monday evening. The hosts took the lead through an early strike before the visitors equalised, setting up a tense finish where Spartak found a way back into it with two second-half goals. The result moves the home side closer to safety while Hebar remain in the lower half of the table.
The opening exchanges produced drama, with Spartak taking the lead in the fifteenth minute. Hebar responded quickly, finding an equaliser four minutes later to level the scores at 1:1. The match grew increasingly physical, with yellow cards appearing at regular intervals as both sides fought for control. By then, the pattern was clear — Hebar dominated possession but Spartak threatened on the break.
The second half belonged largely to the visitors, who controlled 57 per cent of the ball and registered 144 attacks compared to Spartak's 81. Yet possession tells only half the story. Hebar managed just six shots on target against Spartak's eight, and it was the hosts who made their chances count. In the sixty-seventh minute Spartak took the lead, only for Hebar to respond immediately with an equaliser of their own in the sixty-eighth.
The decisive moment came in the seventy-sixth minute when Spartak struck again to take a 3:2 lead that would hold until the final whistle. The goal seemed to shift momentum decisively, and despite Hebar's continued pressure, the academy graduate who marked his first start with a goal helped see out the remaining minutes. The visitors came for a cross he never reached in the closing stages, but Spartak's defence held firm.
The statistics paint an interesting picture. Spartak won with less possession and fewer attacks, yet they were more clinical in front of goal. Hebar's 144 attacks yielded only two goals, while Spartak's 81 attacks produced three — a reminder that cup football has its own rules, and efficiency often trumps volume. The visitors finished with five yellow cards to Spartak's four, reflecting the intensity of a derby with no love lost.
For Spartak, this result ends a run of poor form that included defeats to ЦСКА София II, Вихрен, and Берое. They sit fifteenth on seven points from seven games, and while cannot afford another slip, the confidence from this performance could prove valuable. Hebar remain thirteen points from the top, eight points from safety, and with a goal difference that suggests they found a way back into it only too late.