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Thirty years on from reaching the World Cup semi-finals with a team spearheaded by Hristo Stoichkov, Bulgarian football has fallen on hard times of late. <\/p>\n
While it was not so long ago that they could call on the likes of Dimitar Berbatov – the former Manchester United and Tottenham striker played his youth football at Feeney’s old side Pirin – Martin and Stylian Petrov, Illian Illiev’s current squad does not possess the star power of old.<\/p>\n
After Thursday’s 0-0 draw with Belarus, their only win in their last 16 games came against Tanzania and they finished bottom of their group in qualifying for Euro 2024.<\/p>\n
Feeney, though, warns against underestimating their ability. <\/p>\n
“When they finished fourthth at in the World Cup, they had some of the world\u2019s greatest players at that time, [Hristo] Stoichkov, [Yordan] Letchkov. A lot of their players were out of the country, playing in Germany and Italy.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut you just have to look at the [domestic] football as well. Remember Ludogorets, who are one of the top teams out there, beat Crusaders 9-0 [on aggregate in the Champions League qualifiers of 2018]. <\/p>\n
“It is a big football country with very good players. You can’t underestimate Bulgarian football. It can be a lot slower, but they\u2019re technically very, very good players. <\/p>\n
“In my team I had players who had been playing for Aston Villa, Fulham, Dynamo Moscow, PSV. Top, top players.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n