Belarus and Bulgaria begin their 2024-25 UEFA Nations League campaign with a fixture at ZTE Arena - a neutral venue in Hungary - on Thursday night.
The two nations will have aspirations of gaining promotion from League C Group 3 along with Northern Ireland and Luxembourg.
Match preview
Belarus have never competed at either a World Cup or European Championship and they failed to qualify for Euro 2024 despite collecting a respectable 12 points from 10 group matches, finishing fourth and just three points behind the playoff position.
Carlos Alos has been in charge of the White Wings since December 2023 and has a record of two wins, four draws and four defeats from 10 games, with his team failing to win or score in four matches so far in 2024.
Ranked 99th in the world by FIFA, Belarus will be keen to avoid a repeat of the last international break in June when they suffered back-to-back 4-0 defeats in friendlies against Russia and Israel.
Belarus will also endeavour to vastly improve on their performance in the previous Nations League campaign in which they failed to win any of their six matches in League C Group 3 and finished rock bottom behind Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Slovakia.
The White Wings can be optimistic of success on Thursday as they have beaten Bulgaria in their last two meetings, although their last encounter was in February 2020 when they secured a narrow 1-0 friendly win away from home.
Like Belarus, Bulgaria failed to qualify for Euro 2024 after enduring a miserable campaign in which they failed to win any of their eight group matches, conceding 14 goals in the process.
Mladen Krstajic was relieved of his duties in October 2023 following a nine-game winless streak across all competitions, including four defeats in a row, and current boss Ilian Iliev has since steadied the ship with one win and five draws in his first six matches over the past 10 months.
Bulgaria's solitary victory during this run was a slender 1-0 friendly success over Tanzania, while they have shared the spoils in draws with Hungary, Serbia, Azerbaijan, Romania and Slovenia, drawing with the latter two in June.
Ranked 82nd in the world by FIFA, Bulgaria finished second in League C Group 4 of the 2022-23 Nations League, winning two and drawing three of their six matches and finishing seven points behind group winners Georgia.
The Lions now head into Thursday's opening fixture of the new Nations League seeking to claim their first win over Belarus since November 2016 when they came out on top by a 1-0 scoreline on home soil in 2018 World Cup qualifying.
Team News
Belarus centre-back Alyaksandr Martynovich, 37, has 75 international caps to his name and is set to start in the middle of a three-man backline with Zakhar Volkov and Denis Polyakov.
Max Ebong is the leading scorer in the squad with five goals and he could play on the right side of midfield, while Dmitri Antilevski and Ivan Bakhar could both be handed starts in the final third.
As for Bulgaria, captain Kiril Despodov, who has scored 14 goals for his country, is set to earn his 50th international cap and start on the right flank, joining Martin Minchev and Georgi Minchev in attack.
Leeds United's Ilia Gruev could partner Georgi Kostadinov in centre-midfield, while Ertan Tombak - who made his international debut in June - may join Valentin Antov, Aleks Petkov and Angel Lyaskov in a four-man defence.
Belarus possible starting lineup:
Pavlyuchenko; Volkov, Martynovich, Polyakov; Ebong, Gromyko, Yablonskiy, Klimovich, Pechenin; Bakhar, Antilevski
Bulgaria possible starting lineup:
Dyulgerov; Tombak, Petkov, Antov, Lyaskov; Gruev, Kostadinov; Despodov, Krastev, M. Minchev; G. Minchev
We say: Belarus 1-2 Bulgaria
Belarus have got the better of Luxembourg in their previous two meetings, but Bulgaria have been hard to beat under the tutelage of Iliev and they may just do enough to edge themselves to a narrow victory on Thursday.
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