site.btaBulgaria Achieves Record 10-2 Victory in Friendly Match against Solomon Islands at FIFA Series 2026

The Bulgarian national football team achieved a 10-2 victory over the Solomon Islands on Friday in a friendly match part of the FIFA Series 2026 tournament held in Indonesia. The win secured Bulgaria a place in the final where it will meet Indonesia who defeated St. Kitts and Nevis by 4-0.

The victory was the highest-scoring of the new century and the most convincing since the three occasions on which the team recorded 7:0 against Norway (1957), Finland (1982) and Malta (1982). On the football pitch Bulgaria has scored 10 goals only once more – in 1968 against Ghana in a friendly match played before the Olympic Games in Mexico the same year.

Bulgaria currently stands at No. 86 in the FIFA world rankings while the Solomon Islands are 153th.

Vladimir Nikolov scored a hat-trick, netting three goals in the second half. Marin Petkov and Filip Krastev each scored twice. One each were added by Tonislav Yordanov and Georgi Rusev from penalties, as well as Kristian Balov on his debut. For the Oceania side, Raphael Le'ai scored twice.

Nikolov becomes the first player to score three goals in a single match since the goals by former Aston Villa winger Aleksandar Tonev against Luxembourg in a 4:3 in Sofia in the autumn of 2013.