Paraguay 0 - 0 Bulgaria
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The first game of the Bulgarian team against Paraguay is a "must win" if they are to have a
chance to compete in the second round. Bulgarian squad is favored to win by the observers
and bookmakers.
- 13:30 min.
- After an overwhelming advantage for Bulgaria, Penev earns a free kick just outside
the box of Paraguay. Trifon Ivanov and Hristo Stoichkov are behind the ball, but...
Ivanov's shot touches the wall and... nothing.
- 27:00 min.
- Paraguay starts attacking.
Nankov gets a yellow card for a tackle and Paraguay gets a free kick close to the Bulgarian goal.
Zdravkov saves.
- 35:00 min.
- Bulgaria again takes the initiative. Stoichkov hits the left post of Chilavert's goal
from just outside the box.
- 39:00 min.
- After Bulgaria's 5th free kick of the game - a dangerous situation in front of Paraguay's
goal... but nobody is there to finish it off...
- 42:00 min.
- After a counter-attck, Cardozo faces Zdravkov alone, but misses the goal from just
outside the box.
- 45:00 + 2:00 min.
- Stoichkov gets a yellow card for a tackle after Bulgaria missed to materialize two
successive corner kicks.
- Halftime
- Bulgaria overwhelmingly dominates the game during the first half, as shown by the
stats (free kicks, corner kicks, shots in the goal). However, the team misses to score.
Paraguay mounts a few dangerous counter-attacks.
- 55:00 min.
- Paraguay takes the initiative and gets several good opportunities to shoot at the
Bulgarian goal.
- 64:40 min.
- Stoichkov nicely returns to Penev inside the penalty area, but Penev shoots above
the goal
- 67:00 min.
- Zdravkov saves a dangerous shot into the left corner of the Bulgarian goal.
- 68:00 min.
- Kostadinov comes in to replace Penev in the attack.
- 71:40 min.
- Trifon Ivanov gets a yellow card for a tackle which stopped a dangerous counter-attack by Paraguay.
The free kick by the goalie Chilavert goes just over the wall, but Zdravkov defends
the Bulgarian goal.
- 78:00 min.
- Borimirov substitutes Ilian Iliev.
- 88:00 min.
- Paraguay mounts attacks which keep Bulgaria from getting any opportunity to score.
Nankov gets a second yellow card, and a red one as a result.
- Game end
- Paraguay gets the last two chances to score. Balakov finishes it off with a
harmless foul kick. Both teams disappointed, especially Bulgaria which lacked
stamina in the second half.
Links
The page by Julian Dontchev has likely starting line-up and forecasts by Bulgarian fans.
Located on the Official
World Cup '98 Site, this page has links to related news stories from
Agence France-Presse (AFP):
The page from the CNN/Sports Illustrated World Cup site
starts with a headline:
Playmaker
showdown: Chilavert, Stoichkov set to clash".
Soccernet quoting Reuters also emphasizes
the
clash between "two larger-than-life goal-scorers" - Bulgarian striker Hristo
Stoichkov and Paraguay's goalkeeper Jose Luis Chilavert.
Has the Reuters news reports related to the Bulgarian football team.
ESPN Sportszone also provides some
late news stories from Reuters.
The page from TIME's
WorldCup'98 site also concentrates
on the matchup between Paraguay's leader, captain and most celebrated player Jose Luis Chilavert
and the Bulgarian attack.
The page from Yahoo! has more news stories (mostly, from AFP).
The page has some original news stories by BBC:
- More information related to Bulgaria on this server available
here.
- More news about Bulgaria available here.
