When the national team returned from Luxembourg, Ilian Iliev commented again that in the second half, ours were like militiamen.
The 1:0 victory, however, collected 8 points in our account and at the moment ours occupy the 2nd place in group 3 of division C. The leader is Northern Ireland with 10, Belarus with 6 and Luxembourg with 2.
In the final round, Bulgaria hosts Belarus on Monday, and Luxembourg hosts Northern Ireland. So Iliev’s team has a real chance to finish in the first position and climb to the B division.
“It’s certainly not the football I want us to win with, for sure. I think it’s after we’ve slept, I’ll say the same words as those right after it’s over. Which is that the first half we played well, we scored a goal, and in the second we gave the initiative to the opponent.
Yes, there were moments like that when Luxembourg went high with five men in the line of our defence, started to play more directly and caused us problems. We also had a few counter-attacks where we could have scored, but generally in these games with a weak second half we say the result is important.
If we had lost with a beautiful game, it would not have been more pleasant than the case now. So after that defeat in Northern Ireland, and an unpleasant one as a result, the second one was going to come a little more to us no matter what. I congratulate the boys on their character. I wanted us to come into the game more aggressive to shake off what happened for the last game. And the most important thing now is to prepare for Monday,” said Iliev.
When asked what had caused this big difference in the team’s behavior yesterday, the coach said: “The way Luxembourg played, they did it in the previous qualifiers. Namely, they go out with three men, they stand close to the defensive line with six men. And if we don’t stop the move, what happened in the second half. And they did it. There is not so much amplitude in the performance, but more psychology in the whole situation. You have achieved a result, easily you pull away, the opponent gets confidence and so on. Yes, the game was not good, but we got a second win and that’s positive.”
In the absence of the suspended first captain Kiril Despodov, the uninvited second Georgi Kostadinov and the injured third Iliya Gruev, the ribbon against Belarus will be worn by the brilliant goalkeeper Dimitar Mitov against Luxembourg or the returned to our state team Georgi Milanov, who has the most experience in it.