When the 2020 European Championship qualifying groups were drawn, England were always going to be the favourites to progress from Group A. The early exchanges have only served to reinforce that fact so the battle is now on for second place, which automatically qualifies for the tournament.
As things stand, Bulgaria are in second place in the group with 2 points and on Friday 7th June they face the Czech Republic. The match will take place in the Stadion Letná, Prague.
The hosts have made a bad start to their qualifying campaign. They come into this round of matches sitting bottom of the group without a point to their name. The task of travelling to England for their first match was always going to be tough but the 5-0 defeat was unexpected. Having been losing only 1-0 at half-time, things went downhill quickly in the second half.
Czech Republic have played only one match in the group to date, so in their defense it is probably no surprise they are bottom given the opposition in their opening match.
Trends show Czech Republic have won three of their last eight games. The wins have come against Slovakia home and away in the Nations League plus a friendly in Poland. Home form shows three defeats in their last eleven matches, all of which have come in the last five games.
Bulgaria have played one game more than Czech Republic in the group and come into this game undefeated. They started their campaign with a 1-1 draw at home against Montenegro having equalised with a penalty towards the end of 90 minutes.
The second match was away to Kosovo and Bulgaria took the lead only to be pegged back in the second half to record another 1-1 draw. Kosovo may be a new team to the international arena but cannot be underestimated in this group.
Trends show Bulgaria have failed to win any of their last five matches. There has been one defeat, which came at Norway in the Nations League and four draws followed against Slovenia and Montenegro at home plus Cyprus and Kosovo away.
Away form shows one win in the last eleven for Bulgaria and although they have scored in six of their last seven on the round, Bulgaria have failed to keep a clean sheet in any of those eleven games.
Team news and Czech Republic have a strong contingent of home based players in their squad. However, Patrik Schick of Roma is set to lead the line in attack with Pavel Kadeřábek of Hoffenheim as the key defender.
Bulgaria also have a high number of players from their domestic league in the current squad. However, the top scorer, Ivelin Popov, plays for Rostov in Russia and he is set to captain the team.
The visitors will fancy their chances of getting a goal in this game but their defensive record on the road has been poor. Forebet predicts that the match will end with both teams scoring.