Bulgaria’s U19 national team suffered a defeat against Croatia U19 in the first game in group 5 of the EURO 2016 Elite qualification round.
Beroe’s goalkeeper Mihail Mihailov’s performance was not enough for a point against Croatia.
The match in Rieka started with a minute of silence for the victims in Brussels terrorist attacks.
A back and forth first half saw both teams missing some decent chances.
Svetoslav Todorov’s players had their best opportunity to score in the 19th minute when Tomas Tzvyatkov did not use Stoicho Atanasov’s brilliant cross, but the ball got to Aleksandar Georgiev, whose shot was saved by Shemper.
Several minutes before the end of the first half Georgiev was once again in good position to score, but his chip shot did not find the target.
The home side was quite aggressive as well, as Balich, Moro, Benkovich and Lovren all had their chances, but Mihailov managed to keep a clean sheet during the first half.
However, Mihailov had nothing to do soon after the start of the second half when Yosip Brekalo dribbled through two Bulgarian defenders and smashed the ball home to put Croatia 1:0 up.
After the goal the home side gained self-confidence and started to control the ball much more cleverly. Benkovich, Brekalo, Bozhich and Brodich should have scored, but Mihailov continued with his impressive performance.
Bulgaria’s counterattacks did not seem dangerous and the Croatian keeper was not threatened.
In the other fixture in this group Belgium beat Scotland 2:0.
Thus Belgium and Croatia are both top of the group with 3 points each, as Bulgaria and Scotland are still to win a point.
Bulgaria’s next opponent is Belgium. The match is about to take place on the 25th of March in Zuknica.
Yellow cards: Ivan Bozic (CRO)
BULGARIA U19: 1. Mihail Mihaylov, 2. Stoycho Atanasov, 3. Georgi Kupenov, 5. Ventsislav Kerchev (88 - Kristian Dimitrov), 6. Antonio Georgiev (77 - Stefan Alichkov), 8. Aleksander Georgiev (C), 10. Thomas Tsvyatkov (73 - Radoslav Apostolov), 11. Bozhidar Kraev, 20. Angel Maksimov, 9. Tonislav Yordanov, 13. Galin Minkov
Coach: Svetoslav Petrov
Croatia U19: 1. Adrian Semper, 2. Matej Hudecek, 3. Borna Sosa, 4. Filip Benkovic, 5. Vinko Soldo, 7. Josip Brekalo, 8. Bojan Knezevic (C), 10. Andrija Balic (76- Karlo Plantak), 11. Davor Lovren (85-fran Brodic), 13. Ivan Bozic, 16. Nikola Moro (67-Matija Travaglia)
Coach: Ferdo Milin
Referee: Petr Ardeleanu (CZE)
Assistant referees: Jirí Molacek (CZE), Ole Kronlykke (DEN)
Fourth official: Jorgen Burchardt (DEN)
Department "Public Relations and Media"
