Euro 2004 (07Jun): Bulgaria v BELGIUM - Away win

[Guest Bobbo]

Belgium are 10/3 @ skybet and surely must be worth a punt based on the below (from UEFA.com), with possibly a saver on the draw: Bulgaria will be without six regulars for their UEFA EURO 2004â„¢ qualifier against Belgium in Sofia on 7 June. Kishishev gap Malatyaspor right-back Martin Stankov has received his first call-up in the 18-man squad announced by coach Plamen Markov. The 29-year-old former PFC Levski Sofia defender will fill the gap after the retirement of Radostin Kishishev, who announced that international football was over for him earlier this month. The other gap in defence, left by the suspension of key central defender Predrag Pazin of FC Shakhtar Donetsk, will be filled by PFC Naftex Burgas defender Nikolay Krastev, who made his international debut in a friendly against Albania on 30 April. Zoran Jankovic is absent through suspension, while playmaker Krassimir Balakov is also missing - the national icon will play his last match in a special Gala occasion in Stuttgart today. Forward Georgi Chilikov and midfield player Milen Petkov are both injured and therefore not included. Bulgaria are currently top of EURO 2004â„¢ qualifying Group 8 with ten points from four games. They are three points clear of second-placed Croatia and four points clear of June opponents Belgium.

[cluelessG]

haha oh, but I know it is a joke !!! don't you remember the last Serbia - Bulgaria game? A friendly in Serbia and Bulgaria won 2:1 :rollin well, things are not that bright really and we need Jankovic (badly) and Pazin. I know that Pazin is not good enough and Jankovic is not that good and they both didn't have any chance to play for Serbia on the other hand Serbia has better players but we have (or had with Bala) the better team :b btw I think Serbia is one of the most underperforming teams in the world with all that potential!

[swampster]

Re: Euro 2004 (07Jun): Bulgaria v BELGIUM - Away win The DRAW looks interesting, but I'd rather go with UNDER 2.5 goals. Belgium have only scored 2 goals this campaign, 1-0 wins against Estonia and Andorra (!!!). together with Bulgaria's missing players, looks like a low-scoring game.

[cluelessG]

Re: Euro 2004 (07Jun): Bulgaria v BELGIUM - Away win Agree with swampster - draw and under look very good indeed. On the missing regulars: Kishishev - erm, not the most valuable of players; he left the team because he expected to be the captain of the team after Balakov left but... the players chose Stilian Petrov instead and Kishishev said "I'm too old to play and you do not value me enough so I quit". Bye bye to him! He will not be missed too much in Bulgaria and he will not leave a huge gap. Predrag Pazin - he is OK but he not shown anything special in the last year. I do not know much about his replacement Krastev as Bulgarian championship is not really worth following :( Well, we have a small gap here. Zoran Jankovic - a good player. He can play as a forward or attacking midfielder. We can find a replacement forward but not a midfielder. A major worry for Bulgaria. Milen Petkov - speaking of midfielders, he is one of the good Bulgarian playmakers. The midfield gap opens really wide! Balakov - the greatest Bulgarian player ever, the heart and soul of the team. He intended to part with international footy after this match but he picked a yellow card in the last qualifier against Estonia so he was forced to quit earlier. DISASTER!!! Chilikov - a striker who is really good with high balls and may be very useful. But we have enough forwards so he is not such a big loss. Another very small gap here. Six regulars out so far but I have more news for you - there's another missing regular: Georgi Peev (Dinamo Kiev) - a key midfield player, had an operation last week. Did I just mention "midfield" again? Summary: Bulgaria had 5 key midfielders - Balakov, Stilian Petrov, Peev, Petkov and Jankovic. 4 of them will miss the Belgium match. Do you think it will be an easy win for Bulgaria? I have very serious doubts about it. Draw or away win? Let's ask qlpol about the current situation in the Belgium squad and decide then! Btw, there will be no further news about the Bulgarian team today as they are training "behind closed doors". But a big press-confererence has been scheduled for Thursday and I will post my impressions here.

[Guest Accaman]

re Is Bulgarian football that bad this days, that they have to get Serbian players to play for them (Pazin,Jankovic)?? PS. Lets face it, they play for Bulgaria because they are not good enough for Serbian squad. This is not taking a piss, it`s a serious question.

[Guest qlpol]

belgium I hope y'all are right and Belgium gets at least a draw away there but I'm not so optimistic about this one, and that's kind of strange cuz normally I even expect Belgium to win against Brazil :) Belgium line-up probably : gk : De Vlieger (Trabzonspor?) dr : Deflandre (Lyon) dc: Van Buyten(Marseille) dc: Simons(Club Brugge) dl : Dheedene(Austria Wien) mr : Mbo Mpenza(Mouscron) mc: Baseggio (Anderlecht) mc: Clement(Brugge) ml : Goor(Hertha Berlin) fc : Buffel(Feyenoord) fc: Sonck(Genk) Emile Mpenza is starting on the bench A fairly good squad to line-up is my opinion, but the problem is most players are tired at the end of the season. Except for that i don't know the strengt of the bulgarians without Balakov. I think that's the main issue because i saw them play us in brussels some months ago(0-2) and that Balakov was a real miracle... Now i must say also that the 0-2 beating we got was not one that we deserved, belgium was the better team but got two goals from counter-attacks. Bulgaria was and probably is a tight squad that if not in possession pulls back with 10 behind the ball, and Belgium is not the team with that much technical possibilities to open a gap somewhere. Anyways, I don't think this game can be predicted, Bulgaria is too much changed to evaluate them. It could be as good as they were or much more worse, I hope ofcourse the last :) If Belgium has a good day they can trouble every other national team with the squad they line-up now , but they could also easily get beated like in Croatia due to the fact that the squad is relatively young and unexperienced... Choice is yours :)

[cluelessG]

Re: belgium My favourite quote from the Bulgarian team yesterday: "Yes, we have realized that some of the suspended or seriously injured players will not play on Saturday"

[cluelessG]

Bulgarian team No real news today from the Bulgarian camp, except that Todorov (Portsmouth) may be out of favour with the coach and will probably not start tomorrow. Also the other striker Berbatov left the training session earlier with a slight bruise but is expected to start against Belgium. Probable starting line-up: Zdravkov Petkov - Kirilov - Stoianov (or Zhelev) - Stankov Borimirov (Munchen 1860) Dimitrov (CSKA Sofia) Hristov (K'lautern) Stilian Petrov (Celtic) Berbatov (Leverkusen) Martin Petrov (Wolfsburg) The important thing about this formation is that the focus is on the midfield and not on attack. If Belgium chooses to pack deep in defence, it will be very hard for Bulgaria to score. This line-up is more suited to a counter-attack style. Also today's papers are trying to convince local readers that a draw would be useful and that the pressure is really on Belgium. So I expect a cautious play from Bulgaria tomorrow and they will not be too disappointed with a draw. It will be a close encounter and the odds for home win are too low. Draw is the best value and I will bet on it, though I will be cheering the home team on the stadium tomorrow.

[Guest qlpol]

Re : Bulgarian team If that's indeed the line-up for Bulgaria then I would bet on a draw too... In today's newspapers in Belgium the main sound is optimistic, but if you read between the lines we would not be unhappy with a draw at all :) Fact is Belgium too is not gonna start with an attacking formation, the line-up i had predicted is confirmed today, see higher post... No other news today, no injuries and a good morale...

[Guest Bobbo]

Away Win Cheers for all the advice guys, will be going for away win with cover on 0-0 !!

[Guest qlpol]

Away Win I hope most people followed the advice given here, a draw it was in the end :) @ CluelessG, what is your opinion about the game and how do Bulgarian people estimate the chances of Belgium, Bulgaria and Croatia now??? Personally, I think it was a nice game to watch if you were neutral, many goalscoring opportunities and attacking football :) First half Bulgaria was clearly the better the team and Belgium got lucky with that own-goal... We played average and it was clear most of our players like Goor, Simons and Van Buyten were tired from a whole season. Nevertheless, taken the second half also in consideration, i think a draw is a fair result for both teams, although Belgium should be clearly awarded a penalty with ten minutes to go at 2-2 but Collina did not blow it while he blew a penalty for Bulgaria ten minutes earlier which was also a deserved one, but the foul on Mpenza ten minutes later was clearly much more worse :) Having said that, i rate the Belgian chances to go through without play-offs almost 0%, but if we're able to keep the 9 points at home against Andorra( :) ) , Estonia ( :) ) and Croatia we'll go through to the play offs...

[cluelessG]

Re: Draw hi qlpol I absolutely agree with your view of the match. Disappointed with Belgium in the first half but they were OK in the second and Collina should have given you that penalty. But the fair result was a draw! I'm pretty happy with the way Bulgaria played because I expected them to create less chances. Pity we missed so many of them. Also happy with the way V. Dimitrov played, he will be a vital part of our midfield in the coming matches; both Martin and Stilian Petrov were OK, same goes for Kirilov and Berbatov. Stoyanov (the penalty guy), Hristov and Borimirov were disappointing as expected. Generally we are optimistic about qualifying for EURO 2004. We should beat Andorra and Estonia and we can get a result against Croatia. So please beat those Croatians and do us a big favour :) One more thing, I expected to see more Belgian fans at the stadium but there were only about 100 of them. And the funniest moment (not related to football) was when a speaker announced that next week a team of local politicians wiould play against a team of representatives of EU in Bulgaria - unanimous deafening "boo" from the crowd showed our "support" for local politicians.

[Guest qlpol]

Re: Draw hehe, what do you expect then, that we all went to Bulgaria on a day like yesterday when we all were in Paris to watch the tennis final between two begians :) Prices were also very high, i checked myself and i had to pay around 1000 euros for watching a game and a one day visit to Sofia, food and drinks exluded... too much for a normal footbal fan i think... Anyways, I think you can be sure that Bulgaria is going to portugal, because we're gonna kick Croatia in Brussels, they deserve it :) Now i made a small calculation, and it points out that if Belgium wants to qualify Bulgaria needs to pinch at least a point away on the final day in Zagreb.. I'm counting on that one too or i'll never speak to a Bulgarian again ;)

[cluelessG]

Re: Re: Draw yep, I suppose you were all very excited about tennis on Saturday, I saw the big screen in Brussels with lots of fans watching. I was quite happy about the final too, because Henin is my favourite player :) 1000 euros for the trip? 8o next time just get your travel tickets, I'll fix you with a bed in a good hotel for around 50 EUR, my ticket for the match cost 1.5 EUR (and I was sitting by the Belgian sector, so you could have joined them with no problems) and food and drinks are on me because they are really cheap here (beer - 0.6 EUR; burger - 1 EUR; proper meal at a restaurant - 5 EUR) it seems that Croatian coach is trying hard to wind us up against them as he's said "Bulgaria is a poisonous snake"... and he's right as we will be lethal against them. and a headline in a Bulgarian paper today "Let's show our support for Belgium!" you just kick Croatia in Brussels and we'll do our job promptly!