The national team of Bulgaria against Northern Ireland tonight in a League of Nations match, writes Sportal.bg.
"The Lions" they won the meeting in Plovdiv a month ago with 1:0 and now they return the visit to "Windsor Park". The battle will begin with the first whistle of Frenchman Jerome Brissard at 21:45.
The footballers of Ilian Iliev have five points in their asset, and Bulgaria has no loss under the leadership of the Varna specialist, who replaced the Serbian Mladen Krastaic almost a year ago. With the former Benfica midfielder in charge, our side have two wins and seven draws, the last of which came against Luxembourg on the poor pitch under the hills.
In the meeting with the representatives of the Grand Duchy at the stadium "Hristo Botev" the Bulgarian team suffered three victims at once - Fabian Nürnberger, Alex Petkov and central striker Alexander Kolev missed the clash in Belfast due to bookings. To them we must add Iliya Gruev, who entered the infirmary after a serious injury during a Championship match at the beginning of the month.
These lacks forced Ilian Iliev to react before boarding the plane to Northern Ireland, with the coach calling on Lokomotiv (Plovdiv) left-back Angel Lyaskov. There was also a call-up for Levski's defender Christian Dimitrov, but a doctor's ban left the experienced footballer in Sofia.
The three points tonight are equally important for both teams. With a victory "the lions" will have a chance to top the group, depending on what happens in the Belarus - Luxembourg match. Success for the heirs of George Best will mean that Bulgaria will surely fall to third position in the group.
We remind you that the first place in the final classification in the group will certainly send us to the second level of the League of Nations. The second position sends to a playoff with one of the third teams in the groups of the upper level - at the moment these are Albania, Eire, Slovenia and Iceland.
Northern Ireland - Bulgaria
Probable composition of Bulgaria:
Dimitar Mitov, Viktor Popov, Zhivko Atanasov, Simeon Petrov, Hristiyan Petrov, Georgi Kostadinov, Valentin Antov, Philip Krastev, Kiril Despodov, Georgi Minchev, Radoslav Kirilov.