Preparatory match: Slovakia – Bulgaria 1: 1

Slovakia – Bulgaria 1: 1 (1: 1)

Goals: 27. Bénes – 9. A. Iliev

ZK: Suslov (SR). Decisions: Altmann – Brandner, Gutschi (all Austria), without spectators

Assemblies:

Slovakia: Kuciak (46. Rodák) – Pekarík, Šatka, Vavro, Holúbek – Lobotka (81. Ďuriš), Bero (72. Hrošovský) – Haraslín (55. Suslov), Bénes, Weiss (55. Jirka) – Boženík (46. Strelec )

Bulgaria: Naumov (46. Mikhailov) – Turicov, Antov, P. Hristov, Bozhikov – Despodov (82. Karagaren), Chochev, Vitanov (69. Malinov), Tsvetanov (46. Jankov) – Krayev (46. D. Iliev) – A Iliev (60th Minchev)

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The Slovaks started badly, they looked nervous and screamed. The Bulgarians played emphatically and knew how to get into chances. Already in the 6th minute, Despodov’s cross hit the center of Božikov’s head. The result of a bad start was a goal scored in the Slovak net, when he made a gross individual mistake Vavro, who took the ball Despodov and after a return pass, A. Iliev pushed through with a close shot. Then, after a bad start, Lobotka Vavro did not let the opponent stand a chance. In the 15th minute, after a quick break, the agile Despodov got to the end, but narrowly missed the right post. Only after 20 minutes did the Slovaks get more into the game, they started to be more active and held the ball more on their feet. In the 24th minute, Bulhari also made a mistake in the pass, but they blocked the end of Boženík at the last moment and Haraslín fired next to the Slovak corner. On the right side of the Slovak Republic, Pekarík’s cooperation with Haraslín started working, on the left side, Weiss got into the match and so the Slovaks took over the reins. The equalizer was born in the 27th minute. A well placed corner kick from Pekaríkov was followed by Weiss’s Bénesa past 16 minutes into the match, but he fired just over the crossbar. In the fourth national team, he scored the first goal. The Bulgarians could have taken the lead in the 32nd minute, but Despodov missed the head. At the end of the first act, Haraslín had two more chances, first he hit next and then his attempt blocked the opponent.

At half-time, Kuciak was replaced by Rodák and Boženík by Strelec, and Bulhari made three changes. The Slovaks tried to push the opponent, other new players Jirka and Suslov also came. After an hour of play, Suslov found Jirka with a sharp center, but he headed high above in a difficult situation. With 70 minutes played, Rodák nearly put the visitors another one up as he broke through in the middle and fired from just outside the box, but his shot passed just over the bar. The Slovaks played mostly in the middle of the opponent, but he was well organized. With 85 minutes played, seemingly due to lack of experience, Karagaren needlessly tripped an opponent just outside the penalty area, but the free kick that followed didn’t succeed. The Slovaks played with ten players in the field, as the duel for the injury was not completed by Sagittarius, so did the Bulgarians, who also injured one player in the end. Jirka could have put SR up one more, but he fired into the side netting after breaking free on the left after 88 minutes. The score didn’t change then, so the two teams split up.

At the renovated Real Madrid Stadium, it burned:

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