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Current date: 2010-02-09 10:37

Bulgaria won 2:0 against Cyprus in Sofia

Bulgaria registered their first victory in the qualification campaign for South Africa in 2010, by beating Cyprus in Sofia 2-0 on Wednesday, April 1 with a seventh minute goal from Ivelin Popov and injury time second by substitute Dimitar Makriev.

The Bulgarians could have made matters significantly easier for themselves and their supporters by materialising at least one of the half dozen chances earlier in the match in order to avoid the final 10 minutes of frantic nail-biting.

The hosts stood better, were more coherent and played superior football in the first half, although they were lucky to remain with 11 layers after Stanislav Manolev fouled Aloneftis who was clear on goal. It was a 100 per cent red card and the Cypriots have a reasonable argument to be upset on the subject.

In the second half, Bulgaria was displaying symptoms of fatigue and some cracks appeared in defense. Indecisive defensive performance by the Bulgarian back four provided Cyprus with an opportunity on three occasions to seriously threaten the Bulgarian goal and the flimsy 1-0 lead.

"Our chances remain small" was the sobering assessment of the proceedings by director Nasko Sirakov after the match. 

Meanwhile the Cypriot coach, Angelos Anastasiadis was even less apologetic, as quoted by 7 Dni sport.

"Even if the president of the Bulgarian football association was the referee of the match, he would have given a red card to the Bulgarian defender in 44th minute. But we are used to this. Referees are always against us. Against Italy, a legitimate Cyprus goal was disallowed. And now this happens against Bulgaria" he said.

Muri Stoilov, Bulgaria`s coach had a different stance on the matter.

"The victory is important, we played intelligently, we played well. In spite of all the injuries we displayed good football and the match was won by the magnificent supporters and the team, we did it together. And we would have beaten them with 10 men anyway" he said as quoted by Meridianmatch.

In the next round for the South Africa 2010 qualifications, Bulgaria will entertain Ireland in a tough, must-win match at Vassil Levski stadium in Sofia.