Bulgaria coach Yasen Petrov has urged his team to ‘learn from’ tomorrow’s World Cup qualifier opponents Italy after UEFA EURO 2020 success.
It kicks off on Thursday at the Stadio Artemio Franchi in Florence at 19.45 UK time (18.45 GMT).
“First of all, I want to congratulate the Italy squad on their European title, it’s an enormous success,” said Petrov in his press conference.
“I was above all impressed in Sofia by Italy’s defenders and their goalkeeper, Gianluigi Donnarumma, but while the Azzurri have always been famous for their defence, lately they’ve scored a lot of goals too. Things are changing.”
Petrov only took charge in January and has six games under his belt, including the 2-0 home defeat to Italy in March, which was decided by Andrea Belotti’s penalty and a Manuel Locatelli strike.
“We haven’t had much time to get to know each other, this is the third get-together. Our objective is to bring down the average age of the squad, as the youth is the future, and facing strong opposition can help us to mature.
“Italy have this great collective spirit that allowed them to win the Euros and it’s what we want to learn from in Bulgaria. We aspire to their discipline and positivity.
“It’s true that in six games we’ve used six different tactical systems, and tomorrow will be the seventh, because we have to adjust based on the players at our disposal. We’re not afraid to perform experiments.”
Bulgaria have one point from three games in this World Cup qualifying group, while Italy have a 100 per cent record.