This will be my second mention of Bulgaria at the 1994 World Cup. It is amazing what they achieved, not just that a team that had never won a World Cup match before reached the semifinals but how they turned it around after an awful start.
When Nigeria beat Bulgaria 3-0 in their opening match it wasn't much of a surprise and it seemed to reinforce the perception that Bulgaria's last gasp win in Paris in their final qualifying match would be the highlight of their World Cup achievements. Their dismal finals record would carry on and nobody would pay too much attention to them.
Then they beat Greece 4-0, and they weren't done there. In their final group match they beat Argentina 2-0. What was going on? Greece were equally poor and Argentina were in shock after Maradona's drug-induced banishment. Bulgaria got lucky. It will end soon.
Next they beat Mexico on penalties (in the collapsing goalpost match). Luck again. Surely their run would end against Germany in the quarterfinals.
But on that glorious Sunday afternoon we watched as the unthinkable happened: a good old fashioned World Cup upset. Germany scored first early in the second half. But Bulgaria, amazingly, scored twice in the 75th and 78th minutes, probably the two most famous goals in Bulgarian football history.
Iordan Letchkov and Hristo Stoitchkov became instant bigger stars than they already were to well versed football fans.
The fairy-tale run did end in the semifinals against Italy, but, boy, must Bulgarian football fans long for those days as their team struggles to get close to qualifying for any major tournament.
(The video quality is not great but the commentators losing their marbles is worth it)
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