TipResumen

INTRODUCTION

This will be a battle between two teams that have not played in a big competition for sometime now as Bulgaria and Norway will play in the second round of the League of Nations against each other. Neither side have made it into the Worl Cup or European Championship in the last two editions. They have both started well and will know that this competition is a new opportunity for them. Bulgaria started with a win and are favourites to top the group.



BULGARIA

They have not played the past qualifiers poorly, but they could only managed to finished fourth in the group as they had strong opponents in the group. They were not able to do much with the likes of France, Sweden and the Netherlands in the group. Despite winning 13 points on home ground, when they defeated Sweden and Netherlands, but lost to Belarus and played a draw with Luxembourg, which cost them dearly. After the qualifiers, they played three friendly matches. They made two wins - over Saudi Arabia and Kazakhstan, while they suffered a defeat against Bosnia and Herzegovina. They had a good start in their first match in the League of Nations when they managed to beat Slovenia by 2-1. Their hero was undoutbedly striker Kraev who scored both goals for Bulgaria. Their coach is Petar Hubchev and they do not have any star players in their side, except for captain Popov, who plays for Spartak Moscow in the Russia Premier League.



NORWAY

They have not done well in their qualifiers and have not appeared in the World Cup or the European Competition for a long time now. In their last qualifiers they were particularly poor as they made one win in their first five rounds and suffered four defeats. By then it was obvious they would not make it to the World Cup in Russia. Later they were beaten by Germany by 6-0, and despite playing better only finished fourth in their group. Other then Germany, the chance for them did come, but they could not do much against the likes of N. Ireland and the Czech Republic. After the qualifiers they played two friendly matches and lost both of them to the likes of Macedonia and Slovakia. After that they started playing better and managed four wins over the likes of Australia, Albania, Iceland and Panama. Thus, three out of four rivals were teams in the recent World Cup. They kept faith with Swede Lagerbeck as their head coach, and in their first match of the League of Nations they started with a 2-0 win over Cyprus. The toast of the team no doubt has to be Captain Johansen who scored both goals in that win and they do have a solid team. They will now be without the likes of Soderlund and Berget for this match.



PAST MEETINGS

They met in the qualifications for the European Championship and then Norway won on both occasions then.