Dundalk’s Europa League hopes came crashing down around them at the Georgi Asparuhov stadium in Sofia as they were outclassed by a rampant Levski side.
Ian Foster’s men had no answer to their more illustrious opponents and they can count themselves lucky that the damage wasn’t worse ahead of next week’s dead rubber second leg at Oriel Park.
Foster recalled goalkeeper Peter Cherrie after a lengthy lay off with a foot injury, and after just one training session the Scotsman looked rusty.
Levski dominated from the off, and it was Cherrie’s uncertainty under the high ball that was to gift them the opener.
Brazilian winger Joaozinho’s corner invited the stopper off his line, but he failed to gather and Hristo Yoyov was left with the easiest of finishes.
A goal down after 11 minutes, things got worse quickly as the influential midfielder Yoyov started a move that led to the second as he found Darko Tasevski in space.
He threaded the ball through for Daniel Mladenov, who coolly beat Cherrie from the edge of the box with a low shot.
Dundalk were shellshocked, but Levski took their foot off the pedal and just kept possession for a period.
But as the half wore on they went looking for blood once more, and despite Cherrie’s best efforts they got their reward before the break.
The stopper denied both Tasevski and Vladimir Gadzhev, while Wayne Hatswell cleared a Yoyov shot off the line as the pressure grew.
And the resistance was broken with three minutes remaining in the half as French striker Garra Dembele played a one-two with Tasevski and gave Cherrie no chance with a rising drive that hit the post on the way in.
Whatever Foster might have said at the interval went out the window as Mladenov pounced for his second, and his side’s fourth, within 48 seconds of the restart.
The attacking midfielder was played through by Tasevski, who had been gifted the ball by a poor Garry Breen clearance, and he calmly lifted the ball over Cherrie.
At this stage it was damage limitation and Cherrie led from the front, denying the impressive Dembele on two separate occasions with fine saves.
Dundalk could, and probably should, have left with a goal of their own as Stephen Maher’s deflected shot caught Georgi Petkov off his line but dipped on the wrong side of the post, while Ciaran McGuigan had a header wide.
New signing Steven Lennon went the closest with a cracking shot that hit the underside of the bar, but all the goals were coming at the other end wher Ismael Isa completed the job with a late double.
He headed home from a Veselin Minev cross, before finishing the rout in injury time by capitalising on a loose ball in the Dundalk box to make it six.
