Alexander Stankov’s Bulgaria U-21 National Team has reached the 2006-2007 UEFA European Under-21 Championship play-offs. They were drawn in a strong group with Croatia and Ukraine who only three months ago became the European Championships’ runners-up.
Bulgaria won their first game against Ukraine in Kiev with a very impressive 3-0 scoreline. The goals came from Atanasov and two from Juventus striker, Valeri Bozhinov.
In the second game against Croatia played in Sofia it was again the highly rated Bozhinov who was instrumental and was causing problems for the Croatian defence. He opened the scoring in the 53rd minute. Croatia equalised from the penalty spot five minutes later. The winner for Bulgaria came 9 minutes before the end when Ivelin Popov finished well after a Bozhinov shot was parried by the Croatian keeper.
The win against Croatia came on the birthday of Bulgaria Head Coach, Alexander Stankov, who after the game said: “ We achieved something which Bulgaria has not achieved for a long time. I want to thank all of the players. Some of them came tired from the senior team’s game against Romania, but they acted like real men and kept going for the whole game against Croatia. I am very happy with the win. The boys could not have given me a better birthday present”.
Bulgaria now go through to the playoffs in October which will be the final hurdle before the UEFA Under-21 European Championships final tournament in the Netherlands in June 2007.