The Bulgarian national football team won their first game in the qualifications for the World Cup, defeating Cyprus by 2:0 in a game of the 8th Group, in front of about 20 000 people at the National stadium “Vasil Levski”.

The game began very well for the Bulgarian team. Popov scored a goal in the eighth minute with a header from Dimitar Rangelov’s cross from the left side of the field. Makriev doubled the lead during the injury time, after Velizar Dimitrov crossed from the right flank to the edge of the penalty area, where Makriev evaded the Cyprus defense and sneaked the ball past the Cypriot goalkeeper Antonis Giorgallidis.

The Bulgarian hosts controlled the first half of the game well, but the strikers missed several opportunities to make the result even more impressive.

This is the ninth victory of Bulgaria over the team of Cyprus in the history of the games between the two teams. At the moment, the Bulgarian team has seven points in the rankings of the Group 8. The match between the national teams of Italy and Ireland are very important for the Bulgarian team – a success of the Italian team would mean a chance for qualification in the World Cup for the Bulgarian team.