Arda has kept its chances for the playoff fifth position in the efbet League alive after crushing Lokomotiv (Plovdiv) 4-0. This came as Chernomoere suffered a heavy 0-5 defeat against Botev at "Kollega."

The hero of the day was Antonio Vutov, who scored a hat-trick by the 25th minute and provided an assist to Jelal Husseinov for the fourth goal in the second half (52').

With this win, Arda, currently in seventh place under coach Alexander Tunchev, has narrowed the gap to just three points behind Chernomoere, whom they will face in nine days. "The Smurfs" remain in sixth place and will conclude their season with a city derby against "the canaries."

Chernomoere still has another opportunity to participate in European competitions by winning the Bulgarian Cup final against CSKA on May 20th. Coach Dusan Kosic made ten lineup changes, resting most of his regular players, and only Julien Lami remained among the starting eleven.

This was the fourth encounter between the two teams in the past month, with Arda finally securing a win to partially avenge their 0-4 loss earlier.