Bulgaria to attack Euro 23 qualification with Arsenal, Birmingham, Cologne and Pisa players
The coach of the junior national team of Bulgaria under 17, Yordan Petkov, announced a list of 22 players for the upcoming qualifiers from group 13 for Euro 2023.
The team is not hosting the four-way mini-tournament, in which the teams in Switzerland, Turkey and San Marino will also take part. All matches will be played at the “Hadji Dimitar” stadium in Sliven, except for the match on the last day (October 19) between Switzerland and Turkey, which will take place at the “Beroe” stadium in Stara Zagora.
There are some differences in the group compared to the squad that Petkov put together for the match with Cyprus a week ago.
Here are the called players:
Goalkeepers: Mario Mladenov (Rapid Vienna), Daniel Stefanov (CSKA 1948), Borislav Smilianski (Pirin Bl).
Defenders: Teodor Minchev (Arsenal, England), Ivaylo Videv (Botev Pd), Kubrat Yonascha (Septemvri Sf), Simeon Shishkov (Ludogorets), Ivelin Georgiev (Montana), Konstantin Dimitrov (Ludogorets), Mikhail Polendakov (Septemvri Sf). Midfielders: Janer Sadetinov (Ludogorets), Stoyan Pergelov (Birmingham, England), Kiril Georgiev (CSKA-Sofia), Kristiyan Irmiev (Cologne, Germany), Kristiyan Balov (Slavia), Ivan Sulev (Lokomotiv Pd), Valentin Docsev (September Sf).
Forwards: Boris Kehaiov (Roth Weiss Erfurt, Germany), Philip Gigov (Ludogorets), Daniel Kokov (Botev Pd), Adrian Raichev (Pisa, Italy), Preslav Bachev (Levski).
The first match of the “lion cubs” is on October 13 (Thursday) at 16:00 against Switzerland. On October 16 (Sunday) at 16:00 is the meeting with Turkey, and on October 19 (Wednesday) at 16:00 Bulgaria faces San Marino.
All matches of the Bulgarian team will be broadcast live on B1B BOX TV.
The top two teams from all 13 qualifying groups will qualify for the Elite Round in spring 2023, as will the four third-best teams against the top two teams in their groups.
A total of 16 teams will qualify for the Euro 2023 finals for June 17, including home team Hungary.