Bulgaria squad vs Finland announced
21.3.08, 17:35 by Yordan Tsirov
Bulgaria's national team coach Plamen Markov announced a list of 18 players for the upcoming friendly against Finland on 26 March in Sofia. Compared to the squad against Northern Ireland Markov has called up several new faces. Litex' midfielder Stanislav Genchev and eccentric Botev striker Georgi Kakalov could be making their debut appearance for the national team. Cherno more defender Aleksandar Aleksandrov is also called up, having initially being called up for the U-21 national team earlier.

Finally Aleksandrov's teammate and namesake, who came last year to Cherno more from Turkey, where he established himself the nickname of Alex, makes a return to the national team after several years of absence. Despite being further along his career, Alex has proven instrumental source of creativity for his team in the centre of the field, and Markov obviously counts on him to emulate this in the national team too.

CSKA's midfielder Todor Yanchev was not called up, while missing through injury are Levski wing-back Lucio Wagner and Energie forward Dimitar Rangelov. Ivelin Popov and Nikolay Dimitrov were also not called up by Markov and will now help Bulgaria's U-21 cause in their U-21 Euro qualifier away to Portugal U-21.

Several regulars under previous coaches who were not called up against Northern Ireland after getting transferred out from Levski to clubs in Cyprus and Isarel – Hristo Yovov, Dimitar Tekliyski and Elin Topuzakov – are also missing from the squad again.

Here is the full list of players:

Goalkeepers:
Dimitar Ivankov – Kaiserispor (Kaiseri, TUR)
Georgi Petkov – Levski (Sofia)

Defenders:
Zhivko Milanov – Levski (Sofia)
Stanislav Angelov – Energie (Cottbus, GER)
Aleksandar Tunchev – CSKA (Sofia)
Valentin Iliev – Terek (Grozny, RUS)
Igor Tomasic – Levski (Sofia)
Mihail Venkov – Litex (Lovech)
Aleksandar Dragomirov Aleksandrov – Cherno more (Varna)

Midfielders:
Stiliyan Petrov – Aston Villa (Birmingham, ENG)
Blagoy Georgiev – MSV Duisburg (Duisburg, GER)
Velizar Dimitrov – CSKA (Sofia)
Stanislav Genchev – Litex (Lovech)
Aleksandar Yordanov Aleksandrov – Alex – Cherno more (Varna)

Forwards:
Dimitar Berbatov – Tottenham Hotspur (London, ENG)
Zdravko Lazarov – Shinnik (Yaroslavl, RUS)
Martin Petrov – Manchester City (Manchester, ENG)
Georgi Kakalov – Botev (Plovdiv)

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