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Bulgaria National Football TeamThe Bulgaria national football team is controlled by the Bulgarian Football Union. Bulgaria's best World Cup performance was in the 1994 World Cup, where they beat Germany to reach the semi-finals, losing to Italy, but achieving a highly credible fourth place. Bulgaria first participated in the 1962 World Cup in Chile, but failed to progress to the next stage. The same thing happened in England in 1966, Mexico in 1970, and West Germany in 1974. The Bulgarian national team did manage to qualify from the first round in Mexico 1986, although without winning a game, but they were then beaten in the quarter-finals by the hosts. Probably the most important date for Bulgarian football is November 17 1993, when Emil Kostadinov scored two goals against France in Paris, allowing Bulgaria to qualify for the World Cup in the USA in 1994. Under the management of Dimitar Penev, the Bulgarians made a great impression, eliminating the world champion, Germany with a shock 2-1 win. Huge numbers of people celebrated this win in Sofia, Varna and other Bulgarian cities, and the people were very happy with their golden boys. Having reached the semi-finals, Bulgaria played Italy, but with the score 2-1 to the Italians the referee failed to award what the Bulgarians saw as an obvious penalty, and they were knocked out. Hristo Stoichkov became the joint top scorer of this World Cup by scoring six goals along with the Russian Oleg Salenko. In 1996, the team qualified for the European Football Championship for the first time, although they did not manage to progress beyond the first round. The end of this glorious generation of football magicians came in 1998 World Cup, when the Bulgarians again failed to qualify from their first-round group, going back to Bulgaria with a disappointing record of one draw and two defeats. Bulgaria failed to qualify for Euro 2000 or the 2002 World Cup, but did reach Euro 2004. However the team's performance was disappointing, and they lost all their matches. World Cup record European Championship record Famous players External links
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