Northern Ireland vs Bulgaria (15/10/2024)

FACT FILE: BULGARIA

WORDS: IAN PARKER

• Bulgaria made their first appearance at a European Championships in 1996, but they failed to make it out of a group that also included France, Spain and Romania. • Despite the talents of players such as Martin Petrov and Dimitar Berbatov, Bulgaria have struggled when it comes to the Euros over the last couple of decades, eliminated at the group stage of the tournament in 2004, 2008 and 2012 and failing to qualify in 2016, 2020 and 2024. • Former Aston Villa and Celtic midfielder Stylian Petrov remains the most capped player in Bulgaria’s history, making 105 appearances between 1998 and 2011. • Ex-Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United forward Berbatov is joint top of their scoring charts, having bagged 48 goals in 78 appearances between 1999 and 2010, putting him level with Hristo Bonev who scored 48 in 96 between 1967 and 1979. • This will be the 11th meeting between Northern Ireland and Bulgaria, with Northern Ireland winning two, drawing two and losing the other six. • The first meeting was a World Cup qualifier back in October 1972 in Sofia. Unfortunately George Best saw red in a 3-0 Bulgaria win and two of the goals came from the penalty spot. • The following year the two sides met again, with the game being played at Hillsborough in Sheffield as Northern Ireland continually played away from Belfast at the height of The Troubles. It finished as a goalless draw. • Northern Ireland got their first win over Bulgaria in September 1978, winning 2-0 in Sofia with Gerry Armstrong and Billy Caskey on the scoresheet. • It was 2-0 in Northern Ireland’s favour again

INTERNATIONAL • Bulgaria reached the final of the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, scoring first but losing 4-1 to Hungary at the Azteca Stadium. • They have played in seven World Cup tournaments, making their first appearance in 1962, but they have not qualified since 1998. • In their first appearance at a World Cup finals, in 1962 in Chile, Bulgaria were handed a tough group draw against England, Argentina and Hungary. After losing 1-0 to Argentina and 6-1 to Hungary their hopes were immediately over but they registered an impressive goalless draw against England before going home. • Their draw in 1966 was no kinder as they faced Hungary, Portugal and Pele’s Brazil. • The 1994 World Cup remains the high watermark for Bulgaria to date. • Led by a ‘golden generation’ of players that included Hristo Stoichkov, Yordan Lechkov and Krasimir Balakov, Dimitar Penev’s side recovered from an opening 3-0 defeat to Nigeria to beat Greece 4-0 and then shock Argentina 2-0 and advance to the knock-out stages. • After beating Mexico on penalties, Bulgaria pulled off another shock in the quarter finals with a 2-1 win over defending champions Germany. However, they then lost 2-1 to Italy in the semi-finals before losing the third-place play-off 4-0 to Sweden. • Barcelona’s Stoichkov shared the golden boot with Russia’s Oleg Salenko and ended the year as the Ballon d’Or winner. • Bulgaria’s exploits in the United States saw them reach as high as eighth in FIFA’s world rankings in 1995, although they had sunk as low as 96th by 2012.

the following May at Windsor Park. Chris Nicholl and Armstrong settled the game before half-time.

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NIR V BUL