Following CSKA's 2-0 defeat at the hands of Levski on Sunday, between 5,000 and 6,000 fans, outraged by the loss of their favourite team, broke and burned the plastic seats and facilities of Georgi Asparuhov Stadium. No one was hurt in the flames, but dozens of fans, who started a fight with the police, were arrested.

Injured in the chaos was sports photographer Emanuela Zaharieva, who was hit in the head by a stone and had to receive stitches. The fighting did not end in the stadium, but continued with the destruction of buses in the public transport system and sporadic fist fights on the Sofia streets.

Last year, an unsuspecting citizen was hit by a homemade bomb and later died in the hospital.

From the outset, the game was hiding an unusually - even for this eternal derby - explosive charge. The two teams entered the game from different positions. The hosts, Levski, were expected to be hesitant after their failures on European grounds, against Galatasaray from Istanbul and Chelsea from London, as well as after the recent separation with their coach, Ljupko Petrovich.

CSKA, on the other hand, were in high spirits after their victory in the first round of the UEFA Cup over Ukraine's second best team, Shahtior from Donetsk.

With very bold and dynamic play, however, the Levski players gave no chance to their rivals. Levski goalkeeper Georgi Petkov faced only two or three strikes on his goal.

For the champions it was just the opposite - everyone was up in attack. The Serbian defender Dalibor Dragic was rewarded with a goal after an excellent header in the 10th minute.

In a sign of things to come, there were a few clashes at half time, when the occasional tussle flamed up in the tunnel to the dressing rooms.

The second part of the game continued with the same scenario and another goal for Levski, courtesy of central forward Georgi Ivanov in the 53rd minute.

As the game drew to a close, problems began immediately following the last whistle from the referee. In the visitor's section, fires quickly appeared. While the blue team was making its triumphant lap around the ground, parts of seats were hurled at them.

"What happened after the game was simply abominable," said a member of the supervisory council of Levski, Todor Batkov. "We have a thorough videotape of it and we will hand it over to the police. We have to take the fans responsible to court."

Levski's senior coach, Georgi Todorov, echoed these sentiments. "Our team won, because it fought hard and was looking for victory for the whole 90 minutes. I hope that soon everything in football will become cleaner, and that fans will not make such scenes after the game," he said.

For his part, the coach of CSKA, Asparuh Nikodimov, admitted that Levski was "the fresher team.

"We lost the game because our forwards were clumsy. The blue victory was well deserved," he said.