Latest Photo from Bulgaria

Bulgaria play England at Wembley on Saturday and host Sweden four days later in one of the toughest qualifying groups. They started with a loss to Poland at home. Dimitrov has replaced Vidolov with the 25-year-old Rosen Kirilov from champions Litex (Lovtech) and plans to fly to London on Thursday with a 19-man squad. "I could not include the best players of Bulgaria in the squad...but we will try to play good soccer at Wembley," he said. Bulgaria's 1994 World Cup hero Hristo Stoitchkov, who helped his team to fourth place, is now the most experienced player in the Bulgarian team. Part of the squad started training on Monday at the Black Sea port of Bourgas and all the 19 members will train together for the first time on Wednesday.

Bulgaria's coach Dimiter Dimitrov announced on Thursday the lineup for the Euro 2000 qualifiers with England at Wembley on October 10, and with Sweden in Bourgas (Bulgaria) October 14: Goalkeepers - Zdravko Zdravkov (Istanbulspor, Turkey), Dimitar Ivankov (Levski Sofia) Defenders - Radostin Kishishev (Litex Lovech), Zlatomir Zagorcic (Litex Lovech), Ivailo Petkov (Istanbulspor, Turkey), Vladimir Ivanov (Borussia Moenchengladbach, Germany), Valentin Naidenov (CSKA Sofia), Ivailo Yordanov (Sporting Lisbon) Midfielders/Forwards - Kostadin Vidolov (Bursaspor, Turkey), Ilian Iliev (AEK, Greece), Ilia Gruev (Neftochimik Bourgas), Mitko Trendafilov (Neftochimik Bourgas), Milen Petkov (CSKA Sofia), Danirel Borimirov (TSV 1860 Munich), Zlatko Yankov (Adanaspor, Turkey), Hristo Stoitchkov (Kashiwa Reysol, Japan), Georgi Ivanov (Levski Sofia), Georgi Bachev (Slavia Sofia), Lyuboslav Penev (Celta Vigo), Marian Hristov (Kaiserslautern).

Above: Celta's Lubo Penev, right, heads the ball away from an unidentified Athletic Bilbao defender during a league soccer match in Vigo Sunday October 4, 1998. Celta won the game 3-2.

Peter Nielsen of FC Copenhagen (C) beats Oleksiy Yakymenko (R) of Levski (Sofia) to the ball during their Cup Winners' Cup first round second leg match in Copenhagen October 1. Levski lost 1:4.

Draw for the second round of the UEFA Cup and Cup Winners' Cup made on Friday: CSKA Sofia (Bulgaria) v Atletico Madrid (Spain) and FC Copenhagen (Denmark) v Chelsea (England). CSKA's first legs to be played on October 20nd, second leg November 3rd.

Bulgarian international Lubo Penev fired in a f irst-half hat-trick to set Spain's Celta Vigo on their way to a 7-0 UEFA Cup first round second leg victory over Romanian side Arges Pitesti on Tuesday. Penev, a bargain buy from Compostela over the summer, struck three times within 20 minutes to settle his side's nerves, and, effectively, the contest which ended with Vigo winning 8-0 on aggregate.

Lubomir Luhovy (L) and Andreas Golombek of GAK from Austria fight for the ball with Stefan Kolev, Dimcho Beliakov and Rossen Emilov of Liteks Lovech (R-L) from Bulgaria in their UEFA Cup first round second leg match September 29.

Krasimir Chomakov (top) from CSKA (Sofia) and his team mates celebrate their first goal against Servette (Switzerland) during their UEFA Cup first round, second leg soccer match September 29. CSKA won by 1:0

Carbs Varett (L) from Servette, Switzerland fights for the ball with Georgy Jordanov (R) from CSKA Sofia during their UEFA Cup first round, second leg soccer match September 29. CSKA continue with a 2:2 on aggregate.

September news, August news, July news and June news.

May news #3, May news #2, May news #1. April news #2 and April news #1.

March news #4, March news #3, March news #2 and March news #1.

January & February news; November and December news.

Old news: October news and yet more October (A), October (B) and October (C) news.

Older news: [May 1997], [June-July 1997], [August 1997], [September 1997].

Bulgarian Football News from Meridian Match.

Acknowledgement: Most of the infomation (along with the pictures) is from the Bulgarian Press (Meridian Match, 24 hours, etc.).