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Saturday, 10 October 1998
European Championship 2000 Group Five qualification match

England 0 Bulgaria 0 [0-0]
 

Wembley Stadium, Wembley, Brent, Greater London
Attendance: 72,974;
Kick-off: 3.00pm BST
Live on
Sky Sports (UK) - Commentator: Martin Tyler and Andy Gray

  Match Summary
England Squad
Bulgaria Squad
England - Darren Anderton (56), Jamie Redknapp (81)
Bulgaria - Radostin Kishishev (65)
Results 1995-2000

? kicked-off. ? minutes (? & ?).

 

Match Summary

Officials from Hungary

England

Type

Bulgaria

Referee (yellow) - Laszlo Vagner
42 (24 December 1955), Vencsello, FIFA-listed 1991.

Assistant Referees - Janos Ring and Zoltan Tampos.

Fourth Official - Vancel Toth.

Teams presented to Geoff Hurst MBE, ex-England forward.
  Goal Attempts  
1 Attempts on Target  
  Hit Bar/Post  
  Corner Kicks Won  
  Offside Calls Against  
  Fouls Conceded  
  Possession  

England Team

 

Rank:

FIFA (16 Sept 1998) 11th
EFO ranking

ELO rating 9th to 10th
Colours: The 1997 Umbro away uniform - Red shadow striped collared jersey, navy collar/cuffs with white/red trim, white shorts with red/navy lower side panel, red socks with two navy hoops.
Capt: Alan Shearer, sixteenth captaincy Head Coach: Glenn Hoddle, 40 (27 October 1957), appointed 2 May 1996, effective 27 June 1996,
26th match, W 15 - D 6 - L 5 - F 37 - A 13.
England Lineup
1 Seaman, David A. 35 19 September 1963 G Arsenal FC 46 24 GA
2 Neville, Gary A. 23 18 February 1975 RB Manchester United FC 31 0
3 Hinchcliffe, Andrew, inj, off 34th min. 29 5 February 1969 LB Sheffield Wednesday FC 7 0
4 Lee, Robert M. 32 1 February 1966 M Newcastle United FC 20 2
5 Campbell, Sulzeer J. 24 18 September 1974 D Tottenham Hotspur FC 22 0
6 Southgate, Gareth 28 3 September 1970 D Aston Villa FC 29 0
7 Anderton, Darren R., off 67th min. 26 3 March 1972 M Tottenham Hotspur FC 24 6
8 Redknapp, Jamie F. 25 25 June 1973 M Liverpool FC 10 0
9 Shearer, Alan 28 13 August 1970 F Newcastle United FC 45 21
10 Owen, Michael J. 18 14 December 1979 F Liverpool FC 11 3
11 Scholes, Paul, off 76th min. 23 16 November 1974 M Manchester United FC 13 4
England Substitutes
14 Le Saux, Graeme P., on 34th min. for Hinchcliffe 29 17 October 1968 D Chelsea FC 31 1
15 Batty, David, on 67th min. for Anderton 29 2 December 1968 M Newcastle United FC 36 0
17 Sheringham, Edward P., on 76th min. for Scholes 32 2 April 1966 F Manchester United FC 37 9

unused substitutes:

12-Martin Keown, 13-Nigel Martyn, 16-Nicky Butt, 18-Ian Wright.
 
3-5-2 -

Averages:

Age 26.5 Appearances/Goals - -

 

Bulgaria Team

 

Rank:

FIFA (16 Sept 1998) 45th
EFO ranking

ELO rating 42nd to 39th
Colours: Made by Puma - White collared jerseys with red collar trimmed with white/red cuffs, red side panel and green underarm panel, red piping, green shorts with white hem, white socks with green calf hoop.
Capt: Hristo Stoitchkov Manager: Dimitar Petrov Dimitrov, 39 (9 June 1959), appointed 14 September 1998
Bulgaria Lineup
1 Zdravkov, Zdravko 28 4 October 1970 G İstanbulspor AS, Turkey   GA
2 Kishishev, Radostin 24 30 July 1974 D FC Liteks Lovech    
3 Zagorchich, Zlatomir 26 15 January 1971
born in Yugoslavia
D FC Liteks Lovech    
4 Naydenov Ivanov, Valentin 26 27 July 1972 D FC CSKA Sofia    
5 Iordanov, Ivaylo S. 30 22 April 1968 M Sporting Clube de Lisbon, Portugal    
6 Iankov, Zlatko 32 7 June 1966 M FC Neftochimik Bourgas    
7 Kirilov, Rossen 25 4 January 1973 D FC Liteks Lovech    
8 Stoitchkov, Hristo, off 59th min. 32 8 February 1966 F Kashiwa Reysol, Japan    
9 Hristov, Marian, off 89th min. 25 20 July 1973 F 1. FC Kaiserslautern eV, Germany    
10 Petkov, Milen 24 12 January 1974 M FC CSKA Sofia    
11 Iliev, Ilian, off 62nd min. 30 2 July 1968 M Athlitiki Enosis Konstantinoupoleos FC, Greece    
Bulgaria Substitutes
13 Batchev, Gueorgui, on 59th min. for Stoitchkov 21 18 April 1977 F PFC Slavia Sofia    
15 Gruev, Ilia, on 62nd min. for Iliev 28 30 October 1969 M FC Neftochimik Bourgas    
18 Ivanov, Georgi, on 89th min. for Hristov 22  2 July 1976 F PFC Levski Sofia    

unused substitutes:

12-Dimitar Ivankov, 13-Gueorgui Bachev, 14-Mitko Ivanov, 16-Vladimir Ivanov, 17-Ivailo Petkov.
 
- -

Averages:

Age - Appearances/Goals - -

 

    Match Report by Mike Payne

 

Source Notes

Unfortunately, Bulgaria were no soft touch on a grey afternoon at Wembley and England were held to a scoreless draw.  The home side defended well enough, Lee and Le Saux occasionally sparkled in midfield, but England struggled to put any decent attacking moves together at all.  Rather embarrassingly, the only effort on target in the whole match was a tame header from Andy Hinchcliffe on 31 minutes that Zdravkov could probably have saved in his sleep.

England looked ponderous and predictable within a 3-5-2 formation.  To be fair, Hoddle's options had been seriously reduced before the game started: Beckham was suspended after his spat with Simeone in France, McManaman and Parlour were injured and Merson was back at the team's hotel with a back problem.  So where were the players to put in the crosses for Owen and Shearer?

For once the boy wonder looked less than lethal.  He only had one chance to use his dazzling speed and then he tripped over his feet running onto Scholes' pass late in the first half.  That was unexpected and so was Sol Campbell's miss with a header from a well-worked corner routine.  An England goal would surely have changed the character of the match completely - but it didn't come and a fairly unambitious Bulgarian team held on for a draw.

There were jeers at the end from a sell-out Wembley crowd who had clearly hoped for something better from a team with the whole country behind them at the World Cup.  The fortunate thing was that England had another qualifying fixture in just four days' time against the weakest country in the group.  Three points then would quickly improve their standing in Group 5. - The Official F.A. and England Yearbook 1999-2000.

TheFA.com
Original newspaper reports
Official teamsheet
UEFA match report
Rothman's Yearbooks
F.A. Yearbook
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CG