Bulgarians hoping for a miracle to qualify for finals

BULGARIAN manager Stanimir Stoilov admits his side will have to rely on their opponents falling by the wayside if they are to qualify for next year’s World Cup.

“Nothing is in our hands anymore in this group,” said Stoilov. “From now on we have to win all matches and wait for our rivals to slump.”

However, Stoilov said he was still hoping Bulgaria could progress.

“I do believe in miracles in all matches and we have to wait for our rivals to slump,” he said. “We still have slim chances to qualify, we’ll be fighting to the end.”

Maintaining the fighting theme, Manchester United’s Dimitar Berbatov said of Saturday’s game: “We fought till the last minute but we couldn’t score the vital second goal. Now our destiny is in the hands of others again.”

Bulgarian team general manager Nasko Sirakov – whose dismissive comments about the Irish team’s chances had provoked controversy in the run-up to Saturday’s game – was afterwards straining for diplomacy about his own team’s failure to win.

“I’m satisfied with the performance of the team,” he said. “Our single mistake was to give the initiative to our opponents in the first 10 minutes. I’m proud of the boys even though our wingers didn’t play well.”

Substitute Dimitar Makriev appeared to be dining out on sour grapes. “We were two to three levels of class above the Irish team and we deserved to win,” he maintained.