EURO HISTORY Best performance: Quarter-finalists 1968 Recent performances: 1980-1992 Did not qualify 1996 R1 2000 Did not qualify

Their best moment came in 1968 after emerging from a difficult qualifying group that contained Portugal, Sweden and Norway.

Subsequently Bulgaria then went out to Italy, a side who were to go on and win the European Championship that year.

Bulgaria also qualified for Euro 96, but their performances were a major disappointment, bearing in mind they had reached the semi-finals at USA 94.

Having beaten Romania 1-0 in their opening game, Bulgaria then lost to France and Spain.

The focal point of the Bulgarian team in the 1990s was Hristo Stoichkov, though the fiery striker was more than ably assisted by the talented Krasimir Balakov, Yordan Letchkov and Lubomir Penev.

Initially Bulgaria struggled to cope with the retirement of those players from international football but their qualification for Euro 2004 promises a brighter future.

The new generation of players like Stilian Petrov, Zdravko Zdravkov, Milen Petkov, Dimiter Berbatov, Georgi Peev and Martin Petrov are all very capable.

Portsmouth's Svetoslav Todorov and Serbo-Montenegrin striker Zoran Jankovic, who has taken Bulgarian citizenship, also provide an attacking threat.

Given the constraints Bulgarian coach Plamen Markov has had to work under the Eastern Europeans did remarkably well to qualify automatically for Euro 2004 after topping their group ahead of Croatia.

Half of Markov's young squad play their trade in the Bulgarian domestic league, not noted for its strength, while the Bulgarian Football Association is desperately short of money.

Some players are only paid a few hundred pounds to appear for the national side.

However what the Bulgarians lack in money they are guaranteed to make up in spirit as Markov has created an impressive work ethic among the team.