11/12/1968 England v Bulgaria

[@gregod806]

The more I watch the Bulgarian goal the better it gets. It was a fantastic goal by Georgi Asparuhov, who was playing up front on his own.

[@richardashton9490]

Quite agree. A stunning combination of strength, skill and opportunism.

[@timrobinson100]

come on [ it wasnt that good

[@chelsblue7370]

@@timrobinson100 what would you know, if you say it wasn't that good, you might as well switch to cricket :)

[@garrywood5345]

Sadly he died a couple of years later

[@dsk71]

He won the header in the air, Headed it down to control the ball, advanced with his 3rd and 4th touches. And found the net in his 5th touch. That was just breathtaking to watch!

[@georgijivkov6150]

Аспарухов и Сименов са двете големи звезди в този мач на националния ни отбор. И двамата в този момент са играчи от световна величина. Гунди вкарва дежурният си за всеки международен мач великолепен гол на световно равнище, а вратаря Симеонов спасява поне двайсетина. От другата страна най-добрият е Боби Чарлтън.

[@massimoesr9903]

Now something that is unreal class. Asparuhov just before the goal, touched the ball only 4 times -before the middle of the pitch till the penalty area and same time tackled two defenders. Unreal!

[@ЛЕВСКАРЗАВИНАГИ-р6х]

Georgi Asparuhov - Gundi, forever in our hearts!

It's criminal that Jimmy Greaves was retired from England duty so early. He was only 29 when this game took place. The best striker England ever had.

[@Hristov1984-w9b]

My god, what a fantastic goalkeeper we had- Simeon Simeonov.

[@infrasleep]

Indeed; not many keepers ever got close to a Bobby Charlton thunderbolt ; he kept out 5 .

[@FOUDEFOOT85]

hi I am a huge football fan ! Tell me is it a performance for you to reach quarter finals of EURO 1968 ? or only the 4 last are in history ? for me the 8 winners of each qualifying group did well thanks for your answers BULGARIA 1/4 FINAL IN 68

[@pandvale]

@@FOUDEFOOT85 Yes, that quarter final remains the highest Bulgarian EURO achievement to date. Then Bulgaria was ousted by the future champion Italy by 3:2 and 0:2.

[@FOUDEFOOT85]

@@pandvale thank u for your answers ! who is better ? ROMANIA or BULGARIA ?

[@pandvale]

@@FOUDEFOOT85 Hard to say... Similar levels overall. The all-time balance between the two teams (they have played a lot) is slightly in favor of Romania, as is the all-time balance at club level. Steaua have two EURO champions' cup finals reached, one of them won in 1986. The Bulgarian CSKA had two semi finals in 1967 and 1982 - the highest of any Bulgarian club. Also, Romanian league may be a little better nowadays. On the other hand, Romania has never reached a World Cup semi final, as did Bulgaria in 1994 :)

[@paulnorris2563]

Coleman was such a hopeless commentator, sport’s very own Alan Partridge. Makes no mention of Asparukhov’s pace and skill. A top striker. Also no real mention of how good their keeper was. The most one-eyed (and yet blind) commentator I’ve ever seen.

[@beorlingo]

Really nice watching Bobby Charlton. Only heard of him before. Now I've seen him in action two times in two days. A great player and so much fun to watch. The flow of action, control, and accuracy shooting hard! I know he was considered top notch back in the day. But I'd say history sort of overlooked him. Up there with the very all time best from what I've seen this far. Which is not a whole lot in all fairness.

[@АлександърГорчев]

Красив футбол ,няма вече такива футболисти!

[@zarni000]

the bulgarian goalie was golden

[@BrendonChase2012]

Reminds me of the infamous game against Poland five years later: lots of England pressure and chances, a well taken breakaway goal and a great performance by the visiting goalie. However, ithis was a much better England team and Simeonov was brilliant; Tomaszewski in '73 was inspired. Great game, thanks for the upload.

[@stephenmellor9248]

Everytime Bobby Charlton was about you just new he would hit one of his specials . The Bulgarian keeper that night had a blinder . One things for sure as soon as our bobby hit one i expected the keeper to end up at stanmore tube station.

[@stephenrichardross8017]

Great team England. Great match and five Star goalkeeping one of the best

[@Inglese001]

Yeah with Francis Lee, Alan Mullery etc added to the side, it was probably better than the World Cup winning side. England very unlucky in Mexico World Cup of 1970.

[@BGivka]

Love this, thank you for sharing.

[@pandvale]

In 1967 Asparuhov was offerred a very attractive contract with Milan, and he was close to signing it. But eventually he refused to sign after very curious negotiations in which the topic was not money. Facing the prospect of going beyond the Iron Curtain, he felt insecure about himself and his family. From nowaday's point of view, that's really hard to understand..

[@pandvale]

No, he was not told that his family in Bulgaria would suffer or he would risk an accident (although he must have taken that risk into account). His wife has witnessed about those negotiations in details, as she was present at the conversation with Milan reps and was the interpreter as well. The Italians kept insisting that Asparuhov's 2-year old son would be in Italy with their parents "within a week."" Actually, my judgment doesn't differ from yours. What I mean is that, nowadays, an Eastern European player would meet a similar offer in a totally different way :) Different times...

[@pandvale]

Perhaps you know that Asparuhov lost his life in a car accident in July 1971, together with another Bulgarian international - Kotkov. Their funeral turned into one of the biggest informal gatherings in the communist times of Bulgaria, which brought some disturbances to the government officials as well.

[@Farerets]

Fake news all the way. After the dramatic failure of Italy in 1966 World cup, all Italian clubs were barred to buy any foreign players, let alone ones behind Iron Curtain. No foreign player was signed by any Italian club between 1966 and 1980. There are some curious fantasy transfer stories though, in one famous Russian song from around 1970, there are lyrics "...Fiorentina offered a million for (Anatoliy) Byshovets". Which was of cours, not true either.

[@zarni000]

they were barred from buying foreign players? wtf? who is going to bar them exactly? this sounds like fake news to me.

[@1990-t1j]

@@pandvale Interesting.

[@jdee8267]

Commentator too sour to praise the fantastic Bulgarian goal. The defence didn’t “slip”

[@nenadmarincic]

..exepcional .." BULGARIA "!!! , del - " 68" !!!/ y una muy buena Inglaterra....

[@nasserkhan1504]

Bulg keeper had a blinder. The goal was awesome too.

[@robertmac9057]

5:00 Great save!

[@PreDatoR1873]

Sic transit gloria mundi, non transit gloria Gundi.

[@1middlesbrough]

this wasnt a euro qualifier , it was a friendly

[@timrobinson100]

much more balanced commentary then[ nowadays bulgarian goal would be SENSATIONAL UNBELIVABLE [ commentators wanted englan to win then

[@asd36f]

Bulgaria had some variety in their players' names - 4 surnames ended in "ev" instead of "ov" :-)

[@PreDatoR1873]

That's Bulgarian surnames for you. Weren't English surnames based on where the person works - Miller, Smith, Backer ? ;)

[@Hristov1984-w9b]

"ov", "ev" and "ski" endings of Bulgarian names mean and describe the same thing- the family tree. So if my name is Nikolai Hristov Nikolaev, this means that I am Nikolai, son of Hristo who is son of Nikolai (my grandfather)

[@joekavanagh7171]

@@Hristov1984-w9b it's interesting how you can tell a person's nationality from his surname, e.g -ski (Polish), -ic (former Yugoslav states), -sson (Scandinavian countries), -vili (Georgian), -ian (Armenian), -escu (Romanian), -os (Greek), etc

[@victorsavov2073]

Mind-boggling, isn't it?

[@richardashton9490]

Who is that goalie? He spoilt the game by preventing a superb hat trick from Bobby Charlton.

[@JfK--OBJECTivE]

Simeon Simeonov, he played in three World Cups (66,70,74)

[@vdawg2224]

Wtf was the call at 1:55????? Advantage lol Anyway, Asparoukhov made them look like pylons a few minutes later anyway.

[@eles214]

@tresspasse well maybe not luck. The Bulgarian defenders could have done one or more things: a. put a foot on the ball b. passed to a teamate c. put the ball off the line and out of play. Looked more to me like ball watching. The English attack persisted for an opening.

[@gregod806]

Don't know how he can claim the England defence paid the penalty for the only slip they made. I've watched it time and again and the forward made it all himself and finished it in style. That said England should have been 2 up by then.

[@kennethhills6906]

The number makes a move towards the ball as the last man which gives the forward a chance to get ahead. Newton I think it was should have headed vertically towards the penalty area. The other positional consideration is that Newton should have been closer to the CB and a little deeper to provide depth. Moore would normally have been there but had gone forward in support, so Newton needed to cover more.

[@1990-t1j]

@@kennethhills6906 Good post, Kenneth.

[@dsk71]

Hurst showing everyone on the England team how to finish!

[@cannibalsaaa]

С какъв цвят са играли наште - зелено или червено? Някой знае ли?

[@MrTyzhen]

Червено , като около врата има и трикольорна лента, ако се вгледаш внимателно. Никога не съм виждал цветна версия на тези кадри (ако изобщо има такава, естествено), но винаги червеното е било резервния цвят на нашия национален отбор и това се вижда на доста запазени цветни снимки на отбора от онова време.

[@cannibalsaaa]

@@MrTyzhen Благодаря за отговора.

[@chelsblue7370]

резервният екип винаги е бил с червени фланелки

[@tarkora1742]

quality game. rapid attacks

[@eererov4645]

Днес колко ли ще вкараме?

[@vdawg2224]

В нашата или тяхната врата

[@aeonflux67]

So what? Still counted as a goal. Pure luck or pure persistance it doesnt matter as the result is the same.

[@MrJeepsters]

Who was the english keeper, i don't recognise banks.

[@chunky4038]

MrJeepsters Everton's Gordon West

[@JfK--OBJECTivE]

Gordon West of Everton

[@krzysztofzbojny]

Anglików czy Bułgarów chcemy POLSKA POLSKA piłka nożna grać

[@richardsharpe2966]

I must correct you on this game it wasn't a European Championship qualifier

[@dimitredimitrov2903]

It was friendly

[@timrobinson100]

bugarian OV side?

[@timrobinson100]

WATCHED IT WITH BULGARIAN CHICK SOFIA

[@tresspasse]

England's goal ,pure luck!

[@Rai-Bulgaria]

GUNDI!!!