The winger of CSKA 1948 and the national team of Bulgaria Radoslav Kirilov believes that the team's good performance today should have been even better in order to achieve victory, BTA reported.
Bulgaria left after a 0-0 draw with Belarus in Zalaegerszeg (Hungary) in their first match of Group C3 in the UEFA Nations League tournament. The second meeting of the campaign is coming up on Sunday – hosting Northern Ireland in Plovdiv from 19:00.
"We did not manage to realize our situations. We knew how the Belarus team would play. We tried our best to score but we couldn't. We tried not only on the wings, and Filip Krastev created many situations. Alex Kolev, on the other hand, had opportunities with the crosses. We had variety in attack and played at a good level, but clearly not enough. We have to give more in order to realize more”, Kirilov began.
"Yes, we really broke up after the 60th minute and that was a minus for us. We will analyze now until the next match and I hope on Sunday we will congratulate ourselves on the success”, the attacking football player also said.
The forward of the national team Alexander Kolev missed two very good chances to bring success over Belarus and was logically very disappointed by the missed victory.
The match against Belarus ended 0:0 with serious dominance before the break. Kolev thinks that the opponent's guard played a very strong game.
“The disappointment is quite big because we should have decided the match in the first half. Congratulations to their goalkeeper who played the game of his life. We have to learn our lessons. They relied only on counter-attacks, they were quite concentrated in front of their goal. The red card made it difficult for us, although we had situations after that”, Kolev said.
The debutant in the Bulgarian team – Darmstadt (Germany) left back Fabian Nürnberger showed a very solid game. But like the whole team, the second half was at a lower level for him as well.
Bulgaria finished 0-0 in their first match of the Nations League tournament against Belarus, and the match was played in the Hungarian city of Zalaegerszeg. On Sunday "the lions” welcome Northern Ireland to the "Hristo Botev" stadium in Plovdiv.
"We cannot be satisfied with one point. The first we played well, the second not so much. One point is not so good as it should have been three. That's football. When you don't put the ball in the goal, you can't win. Sometimes it happens, we didn't miss on purpose. Everyone was very helpful and nice to me. They made my adjustment easy. Now the important thing waiting for us is the second meeting on Sunday,”, Nürberger said. He added that he is personally not satisfied with his game, but he can show even better things.
The Spanish coach of Belarus, Carlos Alos Ferrer, noted that the Bulgarians did not surprise him today, and 0:0 is a fair result. The match of the first round in group C3 was played at the "ZTE Arena" stadium. in Zalaegerszeg due to a UEFA decision.
"My opinion is that our team didn't feel comfortable on the pitch in the first 20 minutes, Bulgaria put a lot of pressure on us. They started with a high press which we didn't cope with, we had a lot of problems moving the ball. But in the last 20 minutes of the first half, we looked much better," said Carlos Alos at the press conference.
"In the second half, both teams were tired, the pace dropped. After the red card I expected us to attack, but it didn't work out. But why? Sometimes it happens like this - not what the manager wants, but what the players do. But it's tough at this point in the season. After the red card, the Bulgarians gave us spaces, their transition was difficult, but we didn't take advantage.
He praised the goalkeeper Fyodor Lapukhov, who turned out to be a debutant at the age of 19, Melnichenko and Kireev, who appeared on the field after the break and turned out to be 17 and 18 years old.
"Why was I angry with the judge? I'm always angry at matches. The referee was good, but sometimes he gave very easy fouls for Bulgaria.
Regarding the Bulgarian team, he said: "They didn't surprise me with anything. We noticed that with the new coach they don't fall, but they have difficulties to beat. We analyzed them very well. The team does not concede goals and is very well organized. They don't have the previous gaps from static positions. They block very well and I knew we were going to have a hard time scoring on them because they defend well. The new coach is doing a good job.