Bulgarian national football team (U-21 men)

Bulgaria
България
Bălgarija

Nickname (s)

Lavovete (лъвовете)
(The Lions)

Association

Bulgarian Football Association

confederacy

UEFA

Technical sponsor

Joma

Head coach

Antoni Sdrawkov

captain

Stefan Welkow

Record scorer

Atanas Michajlow (31)

Record player

Petar Michtarski (51)

FIFA code

BUL

home

Away

Successes in tournaments

European Championship

Participation in the finals

2 ( first : 1978 )

Best results

1978 (semi-finals)

(As of October 2017)

The Bulgarian U-21 national soccer team is a selection team of Bulgarian soccer players . It is subject to the Bulgarski futbolen Soyuz and represents him at the U-21 level , in friendly matches against the national teams of other national associations, but also at the European Championship of the continental association UEFA .

Players who have not yet reached the age of 21 and who are Bulgarian citizens are eligible to play. In tournaments, the age at the first qualifying game is decisive.

history

The Bulgarian U-21 was founded in 1976. The reason for this was the reorganization and regulation of UEFA this year, which lowered the age limit from 23 to 21. Before that there was already a U-23, in which the origins of today's U-21 selection lie. In January 1967, an idea resulted in the “Cup for U23 national teams”. A total of 17 U-23 national teams took part in this competition. The tournament at that time was not structured as it is today and was more similar to the format of boxing world championships. On June 7, 1967, the first game of this new cup came. After a draw, the Bulgarian team had to face the GDR team . At home in Stara Zagora, the Eastern Europeans prevailed 3-2 and were the first U-23 European champions. The team was able to defend the title four times in a row, but eventually lost it to Yugoslavia . The U-23 qualified for the European Championships in 1972, 1974 and 1976. The team reached the quarter-finals twice, in 1972 they were only eliminated in the semi-finals.

For the first U-21 European Championship in 1978 , the Lavovete could qualify. There the team met the selection of Denmark . In the first leg there was a 1: 4 defeat for the Eastern Europeans. But thanks to a 3-0 return win and the goal scored away, the white-green-reds made it to the semi-finals of the competition. In this round there was a meeting with the juniors of the GDR. After the first comparison was won 2: 1 in front of the home crowd, the second game ended 1: 3 from the Bulgarians' point of view. Thus the chance to participate in the final was missed.

From then on, the Bulgarian Association had to wait a long time until their U-21 selection could qualify for the European Championship again. It wasn't until the 1990 European Championship that the young players made it again. In the quarter-finals of the final round there was a game between the Bulgarians and Yugoslavia. Both games were lost against the later finalist. After the team lost 2-0 away, they did not get beyond a 1-0 defeat on home soil.

In the meantime, the Bulgarian team has not been able to qualify again through the qualifying round for the European Championship.

For participation in the European Championship 2006 Bulgaria was drawn into group 8 with Croatia , Hungary , Sweden , Iceland and Malta . There were no big opponents, but the qualification was a big disappointment. Two wins, one draw and seven losses. The team achieved a goal difference of 9:17 and conceded the most goals in this group. Only against the bottom of the table Malta could be scored twice. A 2-1 win in front of home fans, while away from home the team drew 1-1. The second win was against the later table top Croatia. On June 3, 2005, the team was able to prevail 2-1 and missed the Croatians the only defeat in the qualification.

Since the next European Championship after the EM in 2006 did not take place two years later, as usual, but took place in 2007 , the corresponding qualification was played out in a rapid process. It started with a preliminary round, followed by a short group stage with three teams and the play-off games. Bulgaria needed to get into the group stage first. In Group 12, the Ukraine was drawn to them. There was also another encounter with Croatia. There was only one game against each team, so the teams had one away and one home rights. In the first game, the Bulgarians clearly won 3-0 against the Ukrainian U-21 team. On September 3, 2006, the team met again on Croatia. Again they could prevail with 2: 1 and so the white-red-green qualified for the relegation games. There it came in the return leg for comparison with Belgium . After the Bulgarians were able to wrest a 1-1 draw from the Belgians in the first leg, the second leg was clearly lost 4-1 and they missed participation in the finals.

In qualifying for the 2009 European Championship , the U-21 juniors from Bulgaria had to face the teams from England , Portugal , Montenegro and Ireland . After the small success in the 2007 qualification, there was again a disappointment in 2009. Only two wins and one draw. The team left the pitch as a loser five times. Points were scored against Portugal, Ireland (one win each) and Montenegro. With only four goals scored, the team was just as bad as the bottom of the table from Ireland. Five of the eight games ended without their own goal. The scorers in the qualification were Valery Domovchijski , Atanas Kurdow , Momchil Zvetanow and Janko Simovic, who played for Montenegro, with an own goal.

Participation in U-21 European Championships

1978	Semifinals
1980	not qualified
1982	not qualified
1984	not qualified
1986	not qualified
1988	not qualified
1990	Quarter finals
1992	not qualified
1994 in France	not qualified
1996 in Spain	not qualified
1998 in Romania	not qualified
2000 in Slovakia	not qualified
2002 in Switzerland	not qualified
2004 in Germany	not qualified
2006 in Portugal	not qualified
2007 in the Netherlands	not qualified
2009 in Sweden	not qualified
2011 in Denmark	not qualified
2013 in Israel	not qualified
2015 in the Czech Republic	not qualified
2017 in Poland	not qualified

Note : Between 1978 and 1992, the final round of a U-21 European Championship was not played in one country, but instead was played back and forth in the respective participating nations.