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| Association | Bulgarian Football Union | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Coach | Hristo Stoichkov, 2004- | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Most caps | Borislav Mikhailov (102) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top scorer | Christo Bonev (47) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| First International Austria 6 - 0 Bulgaria ( Vienna, Austria; 21 May, 1924) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Largest win Bulgaria 7 - 0 Norway ( Sofia, Bulgaria; 3 November, 1957) Bulgaria 7 - 0 Malta ( Sofia, Bulgaria; 14 October, 1982) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Worst defeat SpainThe Spain national football team is controlled by the Royal Spanish Football Federation (Real Federacion Espanola de Futbol). They won the second European Championship ever held in 1964. Spain has greatly underachived in the World Cup, never advancing bey 13 - 0 Bulgaria ( MadridThis article is about the Spanish capital. For other entries, see Madrid (disambiguation). Coat of arms Madrid the capital of Spain, is located in the center of the country at 40°25'N, 3°45'W. As of 2003 census, population of the city of Madrid proper was, SpainThe Kingdom of Spain is a country located in the southwest of Europe. It shares the Iberian Peninsula with Portugal, Gibraltar and Andorra. To the northeast, along the Pyrenees mountain range, it borders France and the tiny principality of Andorra. It inc; 21 May, 1933Centuries: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s Years: 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 See also 1933 in aviation 1933 in film 1933 in literature 1933 in mu) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| World Cup | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Appearances | 7 (First in 1962) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Best result | Fourth place, 1994The 1994 Football World Cup was held in the USA. It was won by Brazil, who beat Italy 3-2 on penalties, after the game and extra time ended 0-0. The format of the competition stayed the same as in 1990: 24 teams qualified, divided into six groups of four. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| European ChampionshipThe UEFA European Championship (known as Euro year is the main national football competition of the UEFA nations. Held every four years since 1960 it was originally called the European Nations Cup, changing to the name European Football Championship in 19 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Appearances | 2 (First in 1996) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Best result | Round 1, 1996 and 2004
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Bulgaria first participated in the 1962 World Cup in Chile but they had to leave the competition very fast because they couldn't get to the next stage. The same thing happened in England in 1966, 1970 in Mexico, and at the WC 1974. The Bulgarian national team managed to pass the first stage in Mexico 1986 although they didn't manage to win a game, and they were then beaten in the quarter-finals by the host of the World Cup.
Probably the most important date for Bulgarian football is November 17 1993, when Emil Kostadinov scored two goals against France in Paris and that's how Bulgaria managed to qualify for the World Cup in the USA in 1994. Under the management of Dimitar Penev , the Bulgarians made a furore and eliminated the world champion, Germany with a shocking 2-1 win. There were really a lot of people celebrating the win in Sofia, Varna and some other cities in Bulgaria and the people were very happy with their golden boys. Then the Bulgarians played against Italy in the semi-finals, but with the score 2-1 for the Italians the referee from Cameroon stayed perfectly still when there was an obvious foul against the Bulgarians in the Italian penalty area. Hristo Stoichkov became the joint top scorer of this World Cup by scoring 6 goals along with the Russian Oleg Salenko.
In 1996, the team qualified for the European Football Championship for the first time in history. The end of this glorious generation of these football magicians came in 1998 World Cup, when the Bulgarians didn't manage to beat anyone and went back to Bulgaria with a disappointing 1 draw and 2 defeats. They were dissapointing at Euro 2004, losing all matches.