England v Bulgaria: Bluffer's guide to England's Friday opponents

By Steve Anglesey in Mirror Football Blog

Published 13:00 02/09/10

• 

They're England's opponents at Wembley on Friday night. But what - apart from the fact that they share a name with one of the Wombles, do we know about Bulgaria, asks Mirror Football's Chris Mann ?

1) For a county with a population of little over seven million, Bulgaria has an impressive international record. The Lions - also known as the Tricolors - qualified for four consecutive World Cups between 1962 and 1974 and are widely regarded as one of the traditional forces of Eastern European football.

Their best showing came at USA '94 when a Hristo Stoichkov-inspired team overcame both Argentina and Germany on its way to an impressive fourth-place finish. Here's Hristo's brilliant free kick against Germany in the quarter-finals:

Stoichkov, of course, went on to become a renowned linguist...

2) Also on that 1994 team was keeper Borislav Mikhailov, who later played for Reading. His son Nikolay, once a Liverpool reserve and now at FC Twente in Holland, is expected to start in goal on Friday night.

Nicknamed 'Bobby' during his time at the Royals, the elder Mikhailov is famous for two things. First, he is said to have joined Reading after witnessing their dramatic 1995 play-off final with Bolton, believing that they played at Wembley every week. And second, despite being bald during the qualifying tournament he arrived at USA 94 with a full but unsightly head of hair - either a dodgy wig or a comment on the poor standards of hair transplantation in the former Soviet Bloc.

3) Perhaps thankfully given England's current struggles, Bulgaria have a shocking record in the European championships. They've only qualified for the finals on two occasions - 1996 and 2004 - and have yet to get beyond the group stages.

The Bulgarians were unlucky in the year football nearly came home, finishing third in a group which also included France and Spain, despite Stoichkov scoring in all three games. In Portugal '04, however, they were shocking and finished with no points and a goal difference of minus eight, the die having been cast by their opening 5-0 defeat to Sweden. Check out Henrik Larsson's brilliant diving header for 2-0.

4) Between those tournaments was Bulgaria's failure to qualify for Euro 2000 after being draw with England in qualifying Group Five. It's a measure of how poor both teams were that Bulgaria finished the group with only eight points - six from two defeats of minnows Luxembourg and two from draws against Kevin Keegan's uninspired side.

The Wembley tie was a 0-0 bore draw in but at least the 1-1 away draw in Sofia featured a goal from Alan Shearer in what was to be the great Stoichkov's final international appearance.

5) Bulgaria have yet to beat England, with the Three Lions' record heading into the Euro 2012 qualifiers standing at P8 W4 D4 L0 GD+7. The series began with a goalless draw in the 1962 finals and Bulgaria have only scored twice in the eight games.

One was through Georgi Markov in that 1999 game, but the other was a bit special. Here it is, via Georgi 'Gundi' Asparuhov at Wembley in a 1968 friendly against the - sob - reigning world champions.

6) Just as Brazilians will tell you Garrincha was a far greater player than Pele, Bulgarians reckon Gundi, not Stoichkov, is their country's biggest football legend. Banned from the last game of the season for retaliating to a foul, the Levski Sofia striker skipped watching the game in order to attend a party but never arrived, crashing and dying inside his new Alfa Romeo along with international team-mate Nikola Kotkov.

Here's a pictorial history - including crash site and graveside videos - accompanied by a tribute song.

7) Bulgaria's all-time leading scorer is Dimitar Berbatov, who made his international debut in 1999 at the age of 18, not long after surviving a kidnap ordeal in which gangster Georgi Iliev tried to force the striker to quit CSKA Sofia for his own club, Levski Kjustendil. He retired from duty in May having scored 48 goals in 74 appearances, citing fatigue and growing criticism of his performances back home.

Here's a highlight package, preceded by Berba on the Bulgarian version of Late Night With Letterman, being badgered by a guest in a vest...

8) Berbatov may be gone, but some familiar names remain in the squad with Aston Villa's Stiliyan Petrov the current captain. He's regularly joined in the starting eleven by Bolton Wanderers namesake Martin, whose old Manchester City team-mate Valeri Bojinov, now at Parma, is also expected to face England after recovering from the injury problems which blighted his time at Eastlands.

9) England's opponents won't be arriving at Wembley with much of a spring in their step. Former Levski Sofia defender Stanimir Stoilov had enjoyed moderate managerial success with both Levski and Litex Lovech in recent years and got the national team job in January 2009 but couldn't salvage a floundering World Cup qualifying campaign and suffered a humiliating 4-1 defeat at the hands of Cyprus during World Cup qualification.

10) Stoilov is attempting to turn things round by adopting a 4-2-3-1 shape, with Bojinov as the lone striker and Litex Lovech playmaker Ivelin Popov supporting from deep.

Results haven't been impressive - a series of insipid friendly defeats to Poland, Belgium and Russia - but Popov has and only just missed out on a deadline day move to Blackburn when the Home Office refused to grant him a work permit on the grounds that he'd not played in enough internationals over the past two years. The 22-year-old missed most of the first half of last season with a foot injury.

Fancy winning £3,000 for FREE this month? Play Mirror Football Streak for your chance to win cash prizes! Start predicting now!