Looking to bounce back from a difficult start to the calendar year, Tanzania will pit their wits against Bulgaria on Friday afternoon at Liv Bona Dea Arena during an international friendly.
The Taifa Stars were dumped out of the Africa Cup of Nations after just three matches in January, whilst the Lions are now hoping to improve on their 2023 performances.
Match preview
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Tanzania travelled to the Ivory Coast at the beginning of the calendar year with relatively high hopes of making it into the top two of their group and into the knockout stages, but they were ultimately unable to do so, collecting just two points from three matches at the tournament.
A three-goal defeat Walid Regragui's Morocco - who reached the semi-finals of the last World Cup - was hardly surprising on the opening game, although it was stalemates against both Zambia and DR Congo which truly prevented the Taifa Stars from squeezing into the latter stages of the competition.
Coupled with a 2-0 defeat to Mohamed Salah's Egypt side on January 7 and Tanzania are currently four games without a win at the beginning of 2024 across all international fixtures, but Friday afternoon represents a good opportunity to end that winless run.
Qualifying for the 2026 World Cup has started in mixed fashion for the Taifa Stars, winning the opening game of the section against Niger in November before losing to Morocco three days later, with Hemed Morocco's men set to battle the likes of Zambia for second place in the group behind the Atlas Lions.
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Bulgaria arrive onto the 2024 international stage having failed to earn a single win across all competitions and friendly fixtures in a horrid 2023, seeing their slim chances of progressing to this summer's European Championships in Germany end with a sorry whimper in qualifying.
The Lions finished bottom of the qualifying section that was dominated by the likes of unbeaten Hungary and Serbia, failing to win any of their eight matches in the group, although back-to-back draws over the top-two sides in November restored some pride for a faltering national side.
With no trip to Germany booked for early June, Ilian Iliev's side are preparing for the upcoming Nations League campaign which commenced during the September international break, with Bulgaria placed in League C alongside Luxembourg, Northern Ireland and Belarus.
Plying his trade in the Scottish Premiership at St Johnstone, Dimitar Mitov is staking his place for the Lions' first-choice goalkeeper in this month's fixture, with the 27-year-old keeping eight clean sheets for Craig Levein's men so far in 2023-24.
Team News
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Tanzania are highly reliant on the goalscoring talents of striker Mbwana Samatta, who spent a brief spell at Premier League side Aston Villa during the 2019-20 season.
There is also an English connection to the Taifa Stars' right winger, with Aldershot Town's Haji Monga enjoying game time during January's AFCON.
Enjoying a spectacular winning run at Leeds United, Ilia Gruev is a rising star for Bulgaria and should feature prominently over the next two weeks.
The 23-year-old was pipped to the Lions' Player of the Year award, though, by winger Kiril Despodov, who netted three goals in Euro qualifying for his nation.
Tanzania possible starting lineup:
Manula; Mwaikenda, Nondo, Hamad, Husseini; Mkami, Miroshi, Mnoga, Salum, Msuva; Samatta
Bulgaria possible starting lineup:
Naumov; Turitsov, Petkov, Atanasov, Popov; Gruev, Michev, Krastev, Kraev, Despodov; Kolev
We say: Tanzania 1-2 Bulgaria
Tanzania crashed out of AFCON at the group stage but showed the ability to compete with the likes of semi-finalist DR Congo whilst in the competition.
Bulgaria endured a fruitless 2023, but with a host of rising stars within their ranks, we are backing the Lions to start 2024 with a narrow victory.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Carter White
