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Bulgaria
Nickname(s)	The Lions (Лъвовете), The Tricolours (Трикольорите)
Association	Bulgarian Football Union
Confederation	UEFA (Europe)
Head coach	Dimitar Penev
Captain	Dimitar Berbatov
Most caps	Borislav Mikhailov (102)
Top scorer	Hristo Bonev (47)
Home stadium	Vasil Levski National Stadium
FIFA code	BUL
FIFA ranking	18
Highest FIFA ranking	4 (July 1994)
Lowest FIFA ranking	58 (August 2002)
Elo ranking	25
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 7 - 0 Norway  (Sofia, Bulgaria, 1957) Bulgaria 7 - 0 Thailand  (Mexico City, Mexico; October, 1968 Bulgaria 7 - 0 Malta  (Sofia, Bulgaria; 14 October 1982)
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 Germany to reach the semi-finals, losing to Italy, and finishing in fourth place after a 4-0 defeat to Sweden in the third place play-off.

Contents 1 History 2 Post-1994 history 3 World Cup record 4 European Championship record 5 Euro 2008 Qualification 5.1 Group G Standings 6 Squad 6.1 Goalkeepers 6.2 Defenders 6.3 Midfielders 6.4 Strikers 7 Players with most caps 8 Players with most goals 9 Stadium 10 Famous players 11 External links

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.

Certainly one of the most important dates in Bulgarian football history is November 17, 1993, when Emil Kostadinov scored two goals against 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 stars 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, sensationally 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 in a controversial match. Hristo Stoitchkov won the Golden Boot as top scorer in the tournament with six goals. Bulgaria also has won the Balkan Cup four times.

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. It was believed the 1996 squad was stronger than the one in 1994, and that they did not progress to the quarter-finals due to misfortune. The Bulgarians, after a 1-1 draw against Spain (a fantastic Stoitchkov goal was controversially cancelled) and a 1-0 victory against Romania, played well but lost the third and decisive match to a very strong France (the future world champion), 1-3. At the same time Spain defeated a weak and 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. However, The "Golden Generation" was history. They earned a goalless draw 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 disappointingly lost all their group matches and were once again sent home without reaching the knockout round.

• 1930 - Did not enter
• 1934 - Withdrew during qualifying
• 1938 - Did not qualify
• 1950 - Did not enter
• 1954 - Did not qualify
• 1958 - Did not qualify
• 1962 - Round 1
• 1966 - Round 1
• 1970 - Round 1
• 1974 - Round 1
• 1978 - Did not qualify
• 1982 - Did not qualify
• 1986 - Round 2
• 1990 - Did not qualify
• 1994 - Fourth place
• 1998 - Round 1
• 2002 - Did not qualify
• 2006 - Did not qualify

• 1960 to 1992 - Did not qualify or Did not enter
• 1996 - Round 1
• 2000 - Did not qualify
• 2004 - Round 1
• 2008 - Did not qualify

Date	Venue	Opponents	Score	Competition	Bulgaria scorers	Match Report
2 September 2006	Gheorghe Hagi Stadium (A)	Romania	2-2	ECQ	Martin Petrov (2)	Romania leads 2-0 at half time before Petrov slots 2 goals in 2 minutes to level the scores
6 September 2006	Vasil Levski (H)	Slovenia	3-0	ECQ	Valeri Bozhinov, Martin Petrov, Dimitar Telkiyski	3 goals in 2nd half
7 October 2006	Vasil Levski (H)	Netherlands	1-1	ECQ	Martin Petrov	Bulgaria leads 1-0 in the 1st half
11 October 2006	Stade Josy Barthel (A)	Luxembourg	1-0	ECQ	Aleksandar Tunchev		S.Petrov quits national team
28 March 2007	Vasil Levski (H)	Albania	0-0	ECQ			S.Petrov rejoins national team
2 June 2007	Dinamo Stadium (A)	Belarus	2-0	ECQ	Dimitar Berbatov (2)	First goals for Berbatov in this campaign
6 June 2007	Vasil Levski (H)	Belarus	2-1	ECQ	Martin Petrov, Chavdar Yankov	Bulgaria came back from 0-1 to win the game
8 September 2007	Amsterdam ArenA (A)	Netherlands	0-2	ECQ
12 September 2007	Vasil Levski (H)	Luxembourg	3-0	ECQ	Dimitar Berbatov (2), Martin Petrov (pen)
17 October 2007	Qemal Stafa (A)	Albania	1-1	ECQ	Dimitar Berbatov	Own goal scored by Kishishev, Georgi Petkov saves a penalty kick
17 November 2007	Vasil Levski (H)	Romania	1-0	ECQ	Velizar Dimitrov	Goal scored in first half
21 November 2007	Arena Petrol (A)	Slovenia	2-0	ECQ	Blagoy Georgiev, Dimitar Berbatov	2 goals in second half, red card for Slovenian player

Key

• H = Home match
• A = Away match
• ECQ = European Championship Qualifier

Main article: 2008 UEFA European Football Championship qualifying Group G

As of matches completed through June 6, 2007.

Team Pts Pld W D L GF GA GD  Romania 29 12 9 2 1 26 7 +19  Netherlands 26 12 8 2 2 15 5 +10  Bulgaria 25 12 7 4 1 18 7 +11  Belarus 13 12 4 1 7 17 23 -6  Albania 11 12 2 5 5 12 18 -6  Slovenia 11 12 3 2 7 9 16 -7  Luxembourg 3 12 1 0 11 2 23 -21

ALB BLR BUL LUX NED ROU SVN Albania XXX 2–4 1–1 2–0 0–1 0–2 0–0 Belarus 2–2 XXX 0–2 0–1 2–1 1–3 4–2 Bulgaria 0–0 2–1 XXX 3–0 1–1 1–0 3–0 Luxembourg 0–3 1–2 0–1 XXX 0–1 0–2 0–3 Netherlands 2–1 3–0 2–0 1–0 XXX 0–0 2–0 Romania 6–1 3–1 2–2 3–0 1–0 XXX 2–0 Slovenia 0–0 1–0 0–2 2–0 0–1 1–2 XXX

Notes on the tie-breaking situation:

• Albania and Slovenia are tied on their head-to-head records, and are thus ranked by their overall goal difference in the group:
  • Albania – 2 pts, 0GD, 0GF, 0 away goals (0:0 H vs Slovenia, 0:0 A vs Slovenia) – Overall GD = -6
  • Slovenia – 2 pts, 0GD, 0GF, 0 away goals (0:0 H vs Albania, 0:0 A vs Albania) – Overall GD = -7

No. Pos. Player DoB/Age Caps Goals Club 1 GK Georgi Petkov 14 April 1976 9 0 Levski Sofia 12 GK Ivaylo Petrov 3 May 1973 0 0 CSKA Sofia 27 GK Dimitar Ivankov 30 October 1975 45 0 Kayserispor

No. Pos. Player DoB/Age Caps Goals Club 2 DF Radostin Kishishev 30 July 1974 80 0 Leicester City 3 DF Aleksandar Tunchev 3 February 1981 11 1 CSKA Sofia 4 DF Igor Tomašić 14 December 1976 5 0 Levski Sofia 5 DF Valentin Iliev 11 July 1980 10 0 CSKA Sofia 6 DF Stanislav Angelov 12 April 1978 9 0 Energie Cottbus 13 DF Yordan Todorov 27 July 1981 1 0 CSKA Sofia 16 DF Zhivko Milanov 15 July 1984 2 0 Levski Sofia 25 DF Lucio Wagner 15 June 1976 10 0 Levski Sofia 29 DF Petar Zanev 18 October 1985 3 0 Celta de Vigo

No. Pos. Player DoB/Age Caps Goals Club 7 MF Velizar Dimitrov 13 April 1979 20 2 CSKA Sofia 8 MF Chavdar Yankov 30 January 1984 17 3 Hannover 96 14 MF Georgi Peev 25 September 1981 32 4 Amkar Perm 15 MF Blagoy Georgiev 21 December 1981 16 1 MSV Duisburg 18 MF Hristo Yovov 4 November 1977 24 5 Levski Sofia 19 MF Stiliyan Petrov 5 July 1979 71 7 Aston Villa 22 MF Dimitar Telkiyski 5 May 1977 12 1 Levski Sofia

No. Pos. Player DoB/Age Caps Goals Club 9 FW Dimitar Berbatov (C) 30 January 1981 61 39 Tottenham Hotspur 10 FW Valeri Bojinov 15 February 1986 17 3 Manchester City 11 FW Zdravko Lazarov 4 October 1985 29 2 Slavia Sofia 17 FW Martin Petrov 15 January 1980 66 15 Manchester City 20 FW Ivelin Popov 26 October 1987 2 0 Litex Lovech 23 FW Martin Kushev 25 August 1973 1 0 Amkar Perm

#	Name	Career	Caps	Goals
1	Borislav Mikhailov	1983-1998	102	0
2	Hristo Bonev	1967-1979	96	47
3	Krasimir Balakov	1988-2003	92	16
4	Dimitar Penev	1965-1974	90	2
5	Hristo Stoichkov	1986-1999	83	37
6	Nasko Sirakov	1983-1996	81	23
7	Anyo Sadkov	1981-1991	80	9
7	Radostin Kishishev	1996-	80	0
9	Zlatko Yankov	1989-1999	79	4
10	Georgi Dimitrov	1978-1987	77	6

#	Player	Career	Goals	Caps
1	Hristo Bonev	1967-1979	47	96
2	Dimitar Berbatov	1999-	39	61
2	Hristo Stoichkov	1987-1999	37	83
4	Emil Kostadinov	1988-1998	26	70
5	Petar Jekov	1963-1972	25	44
6	Ivan Kolev	1950-1963	25	75
7	Nasko Sirakov	1983-1997	23	81
8	Dimitar Milanov	1948-1959	20	39
9	Georgi Asparuhov	1962-1970	19	50
10	Dinko Dermendjiev	1966-1977	19	58

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.

• Hristo Bonev (coach)
• Stiliyan Petrov
• Dimitar Yakimov
• Nikola Kotkov
• Petar Zhekov
• Bozhidar Iskrenov
• Nikolay Iliev
• Georgi Asparuhov
• Alexandar Shalamanov
• Manol Manolov
• Krum Milev
• Georgi Pachedzhiev
• Georgi Denev
• Plamen Getov
• Atanas Mikhailov
• Kiril Milanov
• Nikola Tzanev
• Georgi Slavkov
• Asen Peshev
• Spas Dzhevizov
• Todor Diev
• Dinko Dermendzhiev

The Golden Bulgarian Football Generation:

• Hristo Stoichkov
• Yordan Letchkov (current mayor of Sliven)
• Nasko Sirakov
• Emil Kostadinov
• Daniel Borimirov
• Krassimir Balakov (current coach of Grasshoppers Zürich)
• Trifon Ivanov
• Tsanko Tsvetanov
• Borislav Mikhailov (current president of the Bulgarian Football Union)
• Petar Mihtarski
• Petar Hubchev
• Zlatko Yankov
• Emil Kremenliev
• Bontcho Guentchev
• Plamen Nikolov
• Ivaylo Yordanov
• Ilian Kiriakov

Current Players

• Dimitar Berbatov
• Martin Petrov
• Stilian Petrov
• Hristo Yovov
• Aleksandar Tunchev
• Blagoy Georgiev
• Dimitar Ivankov
• Dimitar Telkiyski
• Georgi Petkov

• Bulgarian football - history, teams, stadiums, fan clubs
• RSSSF archive of results 1924-
• RSSSF archive of most capped players and highest goalscorers
• Bulgarian football legends
• Planet World Cup archive of results in the World Cup
• Planet World Cup archive of squads in the World Cup
• Planet World Cup archive of results in the World Cup qualifiers

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