Overview
The reigning EURO champions of Spain will kick off their 2026 World Cup qualifying campaign with a trip to Bulgaria.
The two teams are in Group E with Turkey and Georgia. The top team will directly qualify for the World Cup, while the second-placed team will have to play the play-off.
Bulgaria will return to play for the first time since failing to qualify for promotion in the 2024-2025 Nations League.
Coach Ilian Iliev's team has 9 points after 6 matches to finish second in Group C3. They head into the promotion/relegation play-off against the Republic of Ireland.
However, Bulgaria lost 1-2 in both home and away matches, forcing them to continue playing in League C when the Nations League returns in 2026.
Preparing for the World Cup qualifying campaign, Bulgaria had unimpressive results in 2 friendly matches in June. They drew 2-2 at home to Ciep and lost 0-4 away to Greece.
As the lowest-ranked team in the group, Bulgaria understands that they will have to make every effort to reach the World Cup finals for the first time since France 98.
The opening match against Spain was also a big challenge, as Bulgaria had lost 4 of their previous 5 confrontations (D1). In the last meeting between the two teams in 2022, Spain defeated Bulgaria 1-0.
Meanwhile, Spain are preparing to return after failing to defend their Nations League title. La Roja beat the Netherlands on penalties in the quarter-finals, then beat France 5-4 in the semi-finals. However, they lost 3-5 on penalties to Portugal in the Munich final, despite leading twice.
Under the leadership of coach Luis de la Fuente, Spain is now focusing fully on the journey to the 2026 World Cup. They have secured a place in the play-off round thanks to their achievements in the Nations League, and are still hoping to qualify for the 13th consecutive World Cup.
La Roja are showing formidable away strength, having not lost for more than 2 years since their defeat to Scotland in the EURO qualifiers in March 2023.
Personnel situation
Dimitar Mitov will be the starting goalkeeper for the home team, although he will have to compete fiercely with Svetoslav Vutsov.
Ilian Iliev could use a five-man defence to neutralize Spain's attack. Nikolay Minkov, Kristian Dimitrov, Aleks Petkov, Anton Nedyalkov and Fabian Nurnberger are likely to start.
Up front, Aleksandar Kolev could be given priority over Vladimir Nikolov in the race for the No. 9 striker position.
On the Spanish side, Gavi (Barcelona), Fabian Ruiz (Paris St-Germain) and Yeremy Pino (Crystal Palace) have all withdrawn from the squad due to injury.
This forced De la Fuente to call up Bayer Leverkusen midfielder Aleix Garcia and Rayo Vallecano striker Jorge de Frutos.
Lamine Yamal will try to promote his form in the national team, after scoring 2 goals and having 3 assists in the opening 3 matches for Barcelona.
Yamal's Barcelona teammate, Ferran Torres, could lose his starting position to Mikel Oyarzabal. However, the former Manchester City striker still hopes to play for his 50th international match in his career.
Expected lineup:
Bulgaria: Mitov, Minkov, Dimitrov, Petkov, Nedyalkov, Nurnberger, Despodov, Shopov, Gruev, Minchev, Milanov.
Spain: Simon, Porro, Le Normand, Huijsen, Cucurella, Pedri, Zubimendi, Olmo, Yamal, Williams, Oyarzabal.
The match between Bulgaria and Spain takes place at 1:45 am on September 5 (Vietnam time).
