by Nicholas Nikolov

Created on: September 08, 2010   Last Updated: September 09, 2010

Head coach Zlatko Kranjcar exuberating a wealth of self-assurance of coming away with a win over Bulgaria, and that is exactly how Montenegro mimicked their coach’s confidence to get the redemption over the Bulgarians with a 1-0 victory at Vasil Levski National Stadium in Sofia.

In the early stages of the first half, however, it was Bulgaria pressing for the all-important first goal – attacking more ambitiously and with a fair bit of self-belief than the entire match against England.

Bulgaria’s first real good scoring opportunity in the 34th with a thumping downward free header from striker Ivelin Popov forcing a one-handed superb goal-line stop by the goalkeeper Mladen Bozovic.

Exactly one minute later, the Montenegrins responded with great execution by a powerfully drilling strike from distance by midfielder Elsad Zverotic. One-timing the hard-fought layoff pas by teammate striker Mirko Vucinic.

Five minutes after the restart, it seemed that Bulgaria levelled things up by the substitute striker Valeri Bojinov – who replaced forward Rangelov – but the Parma forward was ruled offside by the linesman.

After that, the Montenegrins were pinned in their own zone defending the constant attacking by the Bulgarians. But the end result was in favour for the visitor’s; seeing chance after chance frivolous by Bulgaria.

Until, the home sides last effort on goal was an almost perfect slightly bending free kick by midfielder Martin Petrov as the Bolton man rattled it off the crossbar.

Much like Bulgaria’s English encounter in Wembley, Bulgaria had a plentiful of non-capitalizing scoring chances. The Bulgarians’ not-so threatening half-chances wasted against Montenegro were pretty much a result of their lacklustre in not being able to put the ball into the back of the oppositions net and either the poor decision-making gameplan by Stoylov or the dreadful self-improvised ridiculous efforts on lofting long balls from every angle into the penalty area, each time the Bulgarians surged forward.

Possibly, forgetting that none of their forwards pose much of an aerial threat – definitely missing the tall imposing figure of Manchester United forward Dimitar Berbatov.

Right now, as it stands the two teams that are sitting comfortably on top of the table in Group G are England and Montenegro both with six points. It’s safe to say that Bulgaria with zero points in two games – sharing the winless record with both Wales and Switzerland – see their European Championship run will most definitely halt in the qualifications.     

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