site.btaBulgaria Loses to Hungary 0-3 in UEFA Euro Qualifier

Bulgaria suffered a second defeat in the UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying tournament. This time it was a 0-3 loss at the hands of Hungary in a match played in Budapest on Monday evening. Three days earlier, the Bulgarians lost to Montenegro 0-1 in a home game. They remain at the bottom of Group G without any points scored.

The Hungarians earned their first tree points. Serbia is at the top of the group standings, with six points won in two matches.

Hungary secured their success in Monday's match already in the first half-time, when they scored all three goals. The Bulgarian team started off rather timidly and were too slow to respond to many situations. After the break, they performed better, and the substitutions made by coach Mladen Krstajic proved quite appropriate.

"We do not have the luxury of having players in major international clubs and major leagues," the Bulgarians' Serbian coach commented after the game. "And we had injury problems before the match."

Bulgaria's national team captain Kiril Despodov, who left the pitch less than an hour into the game after he felt acute pain in the thigh, said: "It was a very bad first half, very, very bad. The Hungarian team are definitely of a higher class than we are, let us be honest. They showed it on the field. The strain in the first 20 minutes was a big factor. I do not know why we always have to talk about strain and nervousness. You cannot play football if you are afraid. We should be more relaxed. I think this gave us a considerable disadvantage and we could not prevent those two early goals."