Bulgarian pride at stake

Italy task
Bulgaria meet Italy in their last Group C game tomorrow and Markov is certain that his players will do their absolute best to leave the tournament with a win. "We want to make a better impression," he said. "We want to prove that we can play better football and we want to leave Portugal feeling proud of what we have done.

Bright future
"It is also about proving that this generation of footballers have a good future ahead of them." Markov could give some of his squad players a run-out against Italy but said that that he had not made a final decision yet.

Limited resources
Markov said: "I have said it many times. We do not have strength in depth. We have limited resources. But despite that we must try to do our best in the last game. My desire is to repeat Russia's performance in their last game against Greece [which they won
2-1]."

Ins and outs
Ilian Stoianov will step in for injured left-back Ivailo Petkov and Zlatomir Zagorcic will replace the suspended Rosen Kirilov at the heart of the defence alongside Predrag Pazin. Veteran Daniel Borimirov is on standby to replace right-back Vladimir Ivanov, who has a muscle strain.

No refusal
Markov dismissed newspaper reports that midfield player Georgi Peev had at first refused to drop back into defence after Ivanov limped off against Denmark. Markov said that Peev had "never refused to play at right-back" and the FC Dynamo Kyiv man will retain his place in midfield alongside Marian Hristov and Martin Petrov.

'Attractive football'
Milen Petkov is the favourite to replace suspended captain Stilian Petrov with Dimitar Berbatov and Zoran Jankovic continuing up front. Markov added: "We are a professional team and I don't think there are any players who won't take the game against a strong side like Italy seriously. We will again try our best and we want to go out there and play some attractive football."