Game Preview: Bulgaria vs. Croatia - Euro Cup Qualifiers - October 10th, 2014

Bulgaria host Croatia on Matchday 2 of the UEFA Euro Cup qualifiers in Group H on Friday, October 10th, 2014 at the Natsionalen Stadion Vasil Levski in Sofia.

The kick-off time is 20:45 CET.

Bulgaria won their first qualifications game in Azerbaijan with the score of 1-2, while Croatia also won their group opener vs. Malta at home with the score of 2-0.

Group H also features Italy and Norway.

Bulgaria are a team without a single player playing in the top five European leagues. Most of them are fairly unknown, which could potentially play to their advantage. Bulgaria a few years ago had players of Dimitar Berbatov's star power, but nowadays their main player is Kuban Krasnodar's attacking midfielder Ivelin Popov. The entire Bulgaria team, which mainly cosists of players playing in the Bulgarian and Russian leagues, is worth in the area of €25m, according to Transfermarkt.com.

Croatian national team on the other hand is stacked with star players. The most famous names on the team sheet are Real Madrid's Luka Modric, Barcelona FC's Ivan Rakitic and Atletico Madrid's Mario Mandzukic. Modric and Rakitic alone are each worth more than the entire Bulgarian national team, according to evaluations. Croatia will be without their first choice central defender, Dejan Lovren, on Friday due to injury.

The odds for the upcoming game in Sofia are:

Bulgaria: 27/10
Draw: 9/4
Croatia: 5/4

Goalscorers:

Mario Mandzukic: 7/4
Nikica Jelavic: 12/5
Ivelin Popov: 3/1
Andrey Galabinov: 10/3

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The guests are the favourites to win this match, according to the odds.

Will an experienced Croatian team be able to prevail in Sofia and take charge of Group H, or will the Bulgarian side be able to pull off an upset?

The atmosphere at Stadion Vasil Levski promises to be red hot.

Let's see how things play out!