site.btaBulgaria Loses to Georgia 0-3 in World Cup Qualifier

The Bulgarian national football team Sunday suffered its second consecutive defeat in Group E of the World Cup qualifiers, falling 0–3 to Georgia in Tbilisi. For Georgia, this marked their first win of the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign.

Just three days earlier, Bulgaria lost by the same scoreline to reigning European champions Spain.

Both Bulgaria and Georgia entered the match looking to bounce back after defeats in their opening games. The match was played under heavy rain that started just 10 minutes before kickoff.

The hosts dominated most of the match and capitalized on two major defensive errors by Bulgaria in the first half. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia opened the scoring in the 30th minute, followed by Nika Gagnidze doubling the lead in the 44th. Georges Mikautadze sealed the result with a third goal in the 66th minute.

Compared to Thursday’s loss against Spain, Bulgaria’s head coach Ilian Iliev made five changes to the starting lineup. Fabian Nurnberger, Vasil Panayotov, Ivaylo Chochev, Ilia Gruev, and Aleksander Kolev were replaced by Rosen Bozhinov, Georgi Milanov, Andrian Kraev, Vladimir Nikolov, and Marin Petkov.