Read our prediction for Kosovo vs Bulgaria below. This preview was written by a sport journalist who is specialised in betting tips and predictions. Use our betting tips for the match between Kosovo vs Bulgaria and you can increase your winnings!
Kosovo vs Bulgaria Prediction & Betting tips
Last Thursday, the kick-off for qualifying for the upcoming European Football Championship sounded. In five groups of five and five squadrons of six, each of the first two will win the ticket for the continental championship. In Group A, the Three Lions of Gareth Southgate are the big favorites and could underpin this position with a 5-0 victory over the Czech Republic. In the second game, Bulgaria and Montenegro were scoreless – the underdog from Kosovo had no play and only on Monday in the qualifying events. Kosovo will face Bulgaria in the Fadil Vokrri stadium in Pristina.
Kosovo, which has only been a member of UEFA since May 2016, will take part in an European Championship qualifier for the first time. Despite the young history of the association, the goals are ambitious and in the near future participation in a major football event is the declared goal. In Group A England is of course the big favorite, but behind the race for the second European Championship ticket is open. The Czech Republic is considered to be the most promising candidate for this second group place, but the remaining three teams can certainly calculate chances. Group A is considered extremely well behind England, so it will be all the more important to make the home games positive. The game starts on Monday evening at 19:45.
Kosovo:
Although Kosovo was not in the European Championship qualifying campaign last weekend, coach Bernard Challandes’s team was not idle. The 55th UEFA member tested in front of his home crowd against “Danish Dynamite”. The Danes, who could call themselves in recent years quite as one of the stronger teams in Europe, could only achieve the lucky equalizer in injury time. Although Kosovo narrowly missed the win against Denmark, the underdog can build on that performance. In addition, the Challandes-Eleven remained unbeaten for the eleventh time (!) In a row. In 2018, there was not a single defeat for the youngest UEFA member. In addition to friendly matches against teams such as Latvia, Madagascar, Burkina Faso and Albania, the team remained unbeaten in the UEFA Nations League. In a group with Azerbaijan, the Faroe Islands and Malta, 14 out of 18 points were collected. The rise in the third-rate Nations League C is thus fixed and should the team miss in Group A a top two place, Kosovo has the great opportunity to get hold of one of the four tickets on the Nations League.
Thanks to the successes in the UEFA Nations League, the team climbed to rank 131 in the FIFA World Ranking. Compared to the other teams drawn from pot 5, Kosovo is certainly the “horror” for many teams. The squad only has legionnaires. There are some players who leave their marks in international top leagues. The big star is the ex-Salzburg Valon Berisha, who was not available against Denmark due to muscular problems. But also actors like Werder-wing rocket Milot Rashica, Arber Zeneli (Stade Reims) or Bersant Celina (Swansea City) bring a lot of quality.
The Kosovo national team is by no means lacking in self-confidence due to the latest results. In the World Cup qualifiers, it put the team five home defeats. But in the last two years, a significant development has been recorded. The fact that Kosovo is in favor of Bulgaria according to quotas is by no means surprising. Qualitatively, Kosovo does not have to hide and thanks to its self-confidence, a tip on the home win is quite tempting!
Bulgaria:
The yearning for a superstar like Hristo Stoichkov back then is huge among the Bulgarians. Almost a quarter of a century ago, Bulgarian football experienced its heyday. Fourth place at the 1994 World Cup in the USA is still the biggest success in the history of the association. The Europeans were last represented at a major event in 2004 at the European Championships in Portugal. With three losses against Denmark, Italy and Sweden, however, the journey home had to be started.
In recent years, the team was always a long way from a successful qualification. Head coach Petar Houbtchev is even a notion to some fans in Germany, the now 55 -year-old was active as an active player, among others, Hamburger SV and coached as a coach, the second team of Eintracht Frankfurt and VFL Wolfsburg. As Bulgarian national coach, he has a slightly positive 8-4-7 record after 19 international matches. Even in the newly created UEFA Nations League, the team knew only limited convincing. In the third-tier league C Norway secured the group victory and promotion. Bulgaria took second place ahead of Cyprus and Slovenia. Once again, the blatant outward weakness was doomed to the Bulgarians. Only one of the last ten away games Bulgaria could decide for themselves – in Slovenia, there was a 2-1 victory. Otherwise, it was defeats against teams like Belarus or only meager draws against teams like Luxembourg.
In the current squad of Petar Houbtchev hardly known names can be found in this country. Half of the squad earned their money in the domestic league, while the legionaries are not in any top five league in Europe. Four players are under contract in the Russian Premier League. According to Transfermarkt, 31-year-old captain Ivelin Popov is the most valuable player with a value of three million euros. Although Bulgaria is ranked 46th in the FIFA World Ranking, there is no better quality than the Kosovars. In view of the glaring outward weakness in the duel between Kosovo and Bulgaria is a forecast for the away win extremely risky.