Bulgaria national football team

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Bulgaria

Nickname(s)	Лъвовете (The Lions) Трикольорите (The Tricolours)
Association	Bulgarian Football Union
Confederation	UEFA (Europe)
Head coach	Stanimir Stoilov
Captain	Dimitar Berbatov
Most caps	Borislav Mikhailov (102)
Top scorer	Hristo Bonev (48)
Home stadium	Vasil Levski National Stadium
FIFA code	BUL
FIFA ranking	23
Highest FIFA ranking	8 (June 1995)
Lowest FIFA ranking	58 (August 2002)
Elo ranking	23
Highest Elo ranking	7 (August 1969)
Lowest Elo ranking	63 (Oct 1953, Aug 1954)
Home colours Away colours
First international
Austria 6 – 0 Bulgaria (Vienna, Austria; 21 May 1924)
Biggest win
Bulgaria 10 – 0 Ghana  (Leon, Mexico; 2 October, 1968 (friendly)
Biggest defeat
Spain 13 – 0 Bulgaria (Madrid, Spain; 21 May 1933)
World Cup
Appearances	7 (First in 1962)
Best result	Fourth place, 1994
European Championship
Appearances	2 (First in 1996)
Best result	Round 1, 1996 and 2004

Olympic medal record
Men’s Football
Bronze	1956 Melbourne	Team
Silver	1968 Mexico City	Team

The Bulgaria national football team is the national football team of Bulgaria and is controlled by the Bulgarian Football Union. Bulgaria's best World Cup performance was in the 1994 World Cup in USA, where they beat defending champions Germany to reach the semi-finals, losing to Italy, and finishing in fourth place after a defeat to Sweden in the third place play-off.

Contents 1 History 1.1 1994 1.2 Post 1994 history 2 Stadium 3 Competitive record 3.1 World Cup record 3.2 European Championship record 4 2010 FIFA World Cup 4.1 Fixtures and results 5 Squad 5.1 Goalkeepers 5.2 Defenders 5.3 Midfielders 5.4 Strikers 5.5 Recent callups 5.6 Player records 5.7 Most appearances 5.8 Most goals 6 Coaches 7 See also 8 External links

[edit] History

Bulgaria's first appearance in a World Cup was the 1962 World Cup in Chile, but failed to progress to the knockout stages. The same happened in England in 1966, Mexico in 1970, and West Germany in 1974. They progressed from the first round in Mexico 1986 but were beaten by the hosts in the round of 16.

[edit] 1994

Certainly one of the most important dates in Bulgarian football history is November 17, 1993, when Emil Kostadinov scored two goals to beat France in Paris, allowing Bulgaria to qualify for the World Cup in the USA in 1994. Under the management of Dimitar Penev, the Bulgarians, led by players like Hristo Stoitchkov, Iordan Letchkov and Krassimir Balakov (along with a multitude of other talented players remembered in Bulgaria as the "Golden Generation"), made a strong impression, eliminating the then defending world champions, Germany in the quarter-finals, with a 2-1 win. Millions of Bulgarians celebrated this win in Sofia and other Bulgarian cities. Having reached the semi-finals, Bulgaria played Italy but they were knocked out. Hristo Stoitchkov won the Golden Boot as a joint top scorer in the tournament with six goals (Russia's Oleg Salenko was the other winner).

[edit] Post 1994 history

In 1996, the team qualified for the European Football Championship for the first time, although they did not manage to progress beyond the group stage. The Bulgarians, after a 1-1 draw against Spain (a Stoitchkov goal was disallowed) and a 1-0 victory against Romania, lost the third match to France 1-3. At the same time Spain defeated already eliminated Romania 2-1 with the winner coming in the 84th minute.

The Bulgarians did not progress to the quarter-finals in the 1998 World Cup, despite the good form they were in^{[citation needed]}. However, The "Golden Generation" was history. They drew 0-0 against Paraguay and lost to both Nigeria and Spain.

Bulgaria failed to qualify for the Euro 2000 and for the 2002 World Cup, but did reach the Euro 2004. However, they lost all their group matches and were once again sent home without reaching the knockout round.

Bulgaria failed to qualify for the 2006 World Cup after finfshing 3rd in the group after a run of poor results. The team performed impressively in the 2008 Euro qualifiers. However, after a run of good results from Romania, Bulgaria finished 3rd in their group. After 4 draws in the 2010 qualifiers, Bulgaria finally got a 2-0 win against Cyprus.

[edit] Stadium

Normally, the Bulgarian national football team's home stadium is the "Vasil Levski". It has a capacity of 43 634. Vasil Levski National Stadium was officially opened in 1953 and reconstructed in 1966 and 2002. It is currently eligible to host UEFA Cup final matches. During the 2006/2007 UEFA Champions League the stadium was used for the games of FC Levski Sofia with FC Barcelona , Chelsea F.C. and Werder Bremen. The Bulgaria national football team's home matches and the Bulgarian Cup finals are held at the venue, as well as athletics competitions.

The stadium also offers judo, artistic gymnastics, basketball, boxing, aerobics, fencing and table tennis halls, as well as a general physical training hall, two conference halls and three restaurants.

[edit] Competitive record

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[edit] World Cup record

Year	Result	Position	GP	W	D*	L	GS	GA
1930	Did not enter	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1934	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1938	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1950	Did not enter	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1954	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1958	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1962	Round 1	15	3	0	1	2	1	7
1966	Round 1	15	3	0	0	3	1	8
1970	Round 1	13	3	0	1	2	5	9
1974	Round 1	12	3	0	2	1	2	5
1978	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1982	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1986	Round 2	12	4	0	2	2	2	6
1990	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1994	Semi-Finals	4	7	4	0	3	13	12
1998	Round 1	29	3	0	1	2	1	7
2002	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2006	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Total	8/18		26	4	7	15	25	54

[edit] European Championship record

Year	Result	Position	GP	W	D*	L	GS	GA
1960-1992	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1996	Round 1	12	3	1	1	1	3	4
2000	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2004	Round 1	16	3	0	0	3	1	9
2008	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Total	2/13		6	1	1	4	4	13

[edit] 2010 FIFA World Cup

Team v • d • e Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Italy 6 4 2 0 9 3 +6 14  Republic of Ireland 7 3 4 0 8 5 +3 13  Bulgaria 6 1 5 0 6 4 +2 8  Cyprus 6 1 2 3 6 9 −3 5  Montenegro 6 0 4 2 5 8 −3 4  Georgia 7 0 3 4 4 9 −5 3

Bulgaria  – 2 – 0 14 Oct 0 – 0 5 Sep 1 – 1 Cyprus  10 Oct – 2 – 1 1 – 2 2 – 2 5 Sep Georgia  0 – 0 1 – 1 – 5 Sep 0 – 0 1 – 2 Italy  9 Sep 14 Oct 2 – 0 – 2 – 1 1 – 1 Montenegro  2 – 2 9 Sep 10 Oct 0 – 2 – 0 – 0 Republic of Ireland  1 – 1 1 – 0 2 – 1 10 Oct 14 Oct –

[edit] Fixtures and results

The representatives of the six federations met in Sofia on 15 January 2008 to decide on a fixture calendar.