The date is November 17, 1993. It is the last minute of the match between Bulgaria and France at the Parc des Princes stadium in Paris, which should determine the team participating in the World Cup in the USA next year. The score is 1:1 (where France would have qualified), everyone is waiting for the final whistle, when Bulgaria's Emil Kostadinov scores a fantastic goal in the net of Bernard Lama, qualifying Bulgaria for the sixth time in the world finals, and on the air of the Bulgarian National Television, viewers could hear the memorable line of sports commentator Nikolay Kolev aka Michmana - "God is Bulgarian!". An exclamation that has remained in the history of sports and has been included in the dictionary of world football, written by the British journalist Tom Williams in 2018.
Thus began the magical football fairy tale of a nation, and its culmination was in the summer of 1994 in the stadiums of the USA, when the success of the Bulgarian national team surpassed even the wildest dreams of every Bulgarian. Already in the group stage, the 4-0 victory over Greece was the first such victory ever scored by the Bulgarian team at a world championship. A 2-0 victory over Argentina followed. The Bulgarians eliminated Mexico 4:2 after penalty kicks (1:1 in regular time and overtime) in the eighth round. Next came the memorable quarter-final, in which Dimitar Penev's squad faced the world champion Germany. After 0:0 in the first half the Germans took the lead with a goal by Lothar Matthäus from a penalty, but in just 3 minutes, in the 75th and 78th, our players turned the score to 2:1 with goals by Hristo Stoichkov and Yordan Lechkov. The winning momentum was halted by Italy in the semi-final 2-1, followed by a 4-0 loss to Sweden in the third place match. But the Nation rejoiced!
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Photos: mainatown.bg, futbol94.com, archive
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