2024-03-20 21:35:08
Bookmakers do not believe in winning for the nationals against the Africans
And Tanzania, against whom the national team will play for the first time on Friday, put us to shame. African Sports Minister Damas Ndubaru signed yesterday a contract with the Chinese group CRCEG for the construction of a new stadium for 30 thousand spectators in the northern city of Arusha for the tournament of African nations in 2027. So, apart from Europe, we are already being laughed at in Africa for the football infrastructure. The stadium is expected to cost around $200 million. In Bulgaria, we have been looking for a spot for a new national stadium for more than 15 years, which, however, is a lost cause for several governments.
The coach of the Bulgarian national team, Ilian Iliev, conducted a tactical training before the match with Tanzania in the FIFA Series tournament. It was open to the media only for the first 15 minutes, after which Iliev preferred to close the rest of the work. The total time on the field, in which the national coach watched the tasks being carried out, was close to 90 minutes.
Before that, the Bulgarians watched a video of the opponent in their “Hayat Baku” hotel. It became clear that the opponents are a fairly direct team, play with long balls and rely on physical presence in the penalty area in static situations.
Our training took place at the Olympic Stadium – known to the public as the host of the first European Games, which hosted matches from the Pan-European Football Championship and the Europa League final between Chelsea and Arsenal in 2019.
Initially, the training was supposed to take place at the Neftchi Arena stadium, but it was canceled due to the not particularly good condition of the grass cover. The hosts then offered the auxiliary pitch at the Olympic Stadium. However, the extremely strong wind made it unusable. So, in the end, our players came out on the central field, and right before them, the players of Tanzania also did their work. A temperature of 6-7 degrees and a very strong wind created total discomfort for the surprised Africans, some of whom finished the training with jackets and warmers.
This is perfectly normal after the sea breeze brought the temperature down to what felt like minus 3 degrees Celsius, which was hardly to the Africans’ liking.
Fortunately for them, however, the forecast is that the weather will improve just in time for Friday, when first there is the match between Bulgaria and Tanzania, and then Azerbaijan and Mongolia. The temperature should be around 8 degrees and the wind should stop. However, it is unlikely that the Tanzanians will come out with a short sleeve even in this situation.
Bulgaria does not have an official match with Tanzania at any level, as this is the main goal of FIFA in these series – so that the smaller teams can still touch European and South American football.
The most interesting thing is that even the bookmakers do not have much faith in the victory of our national team. The odds for us to win are 1.7. It is exceptionally high for a European team facing the 119th ranked team in the world. Tanzania is rated 4.75 and the draw is 3.30. Usually, when one of the teams is a big favorite, the odds for its success are between 1.05 and 1.15.
The disbelief probably comes from the fact that we’re 83rd in the latest rankings, and the points gap isn’t that big.
In reality, Ilian Iliev still has no victory as a national coach. After replacing Mladen Kirstaic, he recorded two draws against Serbia and Hungary, who were, however, the strongest teams in our group.