Bulgaria vs Italy Prediction - A Crucial Match For The Home Side

Next Saturday, 28th of March 2015, a deeply fragilized Bulgaria will entertain the former World and European champions of Italy at the Natsionalen Stadion Vasil Levski in Sofia for the Euro 2016 Qualifiers.

Bulgaria’s campaign in the Euro 2016 qualifying matches has been a complete disaster so far. The Eastern European team has only won one single match (against Azerbaijan back in September) and are currently fourth in their group with just four points from the same respective matches. The team’s poor streak of results and the home draw against Malta dictated the departure of their manager, the historical Bulgarian sharpshooter Lyubomir Penev, who seemed to had lost the control of the team a long time ago.

The golden days of Bulgarian football are buried way back in the past and now it is up to their new manager, Ivaylo Petev, who did an excellent job with AEL Limassol last year, to restore the team’s lost dignity. During his first match in charge, Ivaylo Petev, snatched a draw against their neighbours, Romania, on a match during which Bulgaria had more ball possession than their opponents and at the same time showed some good moments of football. The 39 year old manager also took the opportunity to bring in several new players, in an attempt to somehow create something new in a team that desperately needs to wake up and smell the coffee.

As for Italy, the arrival of Antonio Conte to the helm of the team has probably not yet produced the desired effect on a National Team that has been lacking some passion over, let’s say, the last couple of years. Nevertheless, Italy are at the top of their group, alongside with Croatia, and both sides have 10 points from the four matches they took part in.

Italy’s last group match was precisely against the Balkanic team but the all-powerful Squadra Azzurra didn’t manage to get anything better than a draw from such clash that took place at the emblematic San Siro.

Despite the recent managerial change and the hypothetical motivation boost that such situations usually create, Bulgaria doesn’t still seem to have the weapons needed to disturb a well organized side such as Italy; thus, the Squadra Azzurra are firm favourites for next Saturday’s clash.

Bulgaria

Stats: W-1 L-2 D-2

Recent Form - DDLLW

Italy

Stats: W-4 L-0 D-1

Recent Form - WDWWW

Possible Line-ups

Bulgaria (4-2-3-1) - Mihaylov - Manolev - Alexandrov - Zanev - Minev - Dyakov - Gadzhev - Chochev - Milanov - Popov - Bojinov

Italy (3-1-4-2) – Buffon - Chiellini - Bonucci - Ranocchia - Marchisio - Candreva - Florenzi - Verratti - Parolo - Zaza - Immobile

Injury List / Suspended Players

Bulgaria

Ivan Ivanov (inj)

Italy

Andrea Pirlo (inj)

Head-to-head matches:

Top Players:

Bulgaria

Ivaylo Popov

Georgi Milanov

Vladimir Gadzhev

Italy

Claudio Marchisio

Gianluigi Buffon

Antonio Candreva

Predictable Goal Scorers:

Bulgaria

1. Ivelin Popov
2. Valeri Bojinov
3. Vladimir Gadzhev

Italy

1. Simone Zaza
2. Ciro Immobile
3. Claudio Marchisio

Half-Time Score

Bulgaria 1 Italy 0

Full-Time Score

Bulgaria 1 Italy 1