EURO 2012 Qualification, Wales versus Bulgaria (Preview)
Wales are all set to host Bulgaria for their crucial 2012 European Championships qualification match at the Cardiff stadium in the city of Cardiff, Wales.
After performing abysmally in their first qualification match against Montenegro, Wales will be looking to get their act back on stage as they face a mediocre Bulgarian side. Bulgaria haven’t been that fantastic themselves, in their qualification match they
ended up as second best to England at Wembley stadium.
It was understandably a miss-match of epic proportions as the Bulgarians were thrashed by a score line of four goals to one. In their second qualifier that took place in Bulgaria, the men in white and green lost to Montenegro, after giving away a cheap goal,
in the first half of the encounter.
This means that this matchup at the Millennium Stadium is a vital one for both the sides. Wales are yet to impress and with Craig Bellamy absent due to an injury from their squad, Ashley Williams will be captaining the Welsh side for this match in question.
With no points on the board, Bulgaria will fancy their chances against a weak Welsh side, who have been disappointing in international football since the 1990s.
Wales do have some players in form. Their main man for this match will be their star winger/full back Gareth Bale. Bale has been on top form for his club side Tottenham Hotspurs in the English Premier League. He has been consistent in his performances thus
far and if he can reproduce the same displays at the international level then Wales might have an outside chance of getting a spot at the European Championships of 2012.
Along with Craig Bellamy, who is a confirmed absentee due to a knee injury, there are other high profile absentee’s as well. Robert Earnshaw, the ex-Norwich City striker is also unavailable for selection as he has also withdrawn from the Welsh squad due
to an injury that has kept him out of action for his club side, Nottingham Forest. To provide cover for the absence of Bellamy and Earnshaw, Wales have called up a young forward, Ryan Doble to feature for them against Montenegro. If the youthful forward does
indeed make a mark during the coming days for the Welsh side, his career as an international footballer can well and truly be launched into orbit.
Wales recently parted ways with their previous manager John Toshack and replaced the ex-Real Madrid coach with Brian Flynn. Flynn has made several new call ups for the Welsh squad, which is supposed to face Bulgaria. For example, Neil Taylor from Swansea
City, Darcy Blake from Cardiff City have both been called up to the new look squad for Wales. These new additions have been forced onto the new manager because Neal Eardley and Brian Stock have pulled themselves out of selection contention due to their ankle
and back injuries respectively.
On the other hand Bulgaria have had some difficulties on the international scene after their record goal scorer, Dimitar Berbatov, announced his retirement from international football in the summer of 2010 when the FIFA World Cup was taking place in South
Africa. It was a big decision which has been quite hurtful to Bulgarian football as a whole. Berbatov’s influence and presence in the international team was immense and thus players have found it extremely hard to keep up their performances with the focal
point of their team’s offence missing.
Lothar Mathaeus’s team will be looking to pull his squad together and especially enforce some defensive discipline, which has been absent from the Bulgarian ranks during their previous two qualification games.
However, the German manager has got his work cut out due to injuries to Veselin Minew and Zhivko Milanov. Both the defenders are out with thigh and back injuries respectively. If this wasn’t enough, Stasilav Manolev and Alexander Tunchev are also sidelined
due to their fitness problems. With a depleted squad at hand, Bulgaria are set to recall Valentine Iliev and Dimitar Makriev as well as Ivan Stoyanov.
It is definitely expected that Bulgaria will be the dominant force in this match, they have played more international football than Wales over the past six months and therefore their team chemistry is anticipated to be at a higher level than their Welsh
counter parts. However, as the match is taking place at the Millennium Stadium, Wales will be striving to at least get a point from this encounter.
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