The Bulgarian national football team will be supported by just over 300 people at the "Aviva" stadium in Dublin tonight (Sunday, March 23) at 9:45 p.m., when they visit Ireland in their second Nations League playoff match.
A large part of them live in both parts of the island of Ireland, fans are also arriving from England, most of whom will use flights on the day of the match. More or less the same number filled the away section of the stadium in Luxembourg in November, when Ilian Iliev's players beat them 1-0.
"The Lions" They lost 1:2 in the first match in Plovdiv on Thursday, but now they can turn the aggregate score around, even if they win by a small margin in regular time and rely on extra time and penalties.
The hosts are expecting over 40,000 spectators for the match - which, strangely enough, makes the Bulgarians a more attractive opponent for Irish fans than Finland and Greece, who visited Dublin in the autumn in the Nations League.
This threshold was crossed last night when the 40,000th ticket was sold. For comparison, the two matches in question did not cross this threshold in terms of ticket sales. Against Finland in November, there were 39,163 spectators in the stands of the "Aviva Stadium", who saw the 1:0 victory. In September, the 0-2 defeat to Greece was watched by 37,274 people.
The match against Belgium was also attended by fewer than 40,000 people exactly a year ago – on March 23, 2024. The 0-0 draw was witnessed by 38,128 people.
For understandable reasons, the local feud with England caused hysteria with a completely sold-out stadium and 50,359 in the stands.
The facility itself was built in 2010 and opened with an exhibition match between Manchester United and the League of Ireland team. Its cost is 410 million euros, of which 191 million euros was provided by the country's government, and the rest exclusively from sponsorship and donations. Previously, the stadium was briefly known as "Dublin Stadium", and historically "Landsdowne Road".
Tonight, the stadium will host its 81st match since its construction, and the last major event the facility hosted was the Europa League final between Atalanta (Italy) and Bayer Leverkusen (Germany).