Bulgaria's national football team have gathered in their training camp in Sofia, getting ready to face Italy on Saturday.

Captain Dimitar Berbatov, goalkeeper Dimitar Ivankov, midfielders Stiliyan Petrov and Blogoy Georgiev were among the players at the first training session on Monday.

Coach Plamen Markov, has also included winger Martin Petrov in his 20-strong squad for the World Cup qualifier, despite the fact that Petrov is still nursing an injury.

"Italy is the favourite in the match but we'll do our best and we hope we could win," Berbatov commented.

Bulgaria's team for the match in full: goalkeepers Dimitar Ivankov (Bursaspor) and Georgi Petkov (Levski Sofia); defenders Alexander Tounchev (Leicester City), Valentin Iliev (Terek Grozny), Ivan Ivanov (CSKA Sofia), Zhivko Milanov and Lucio Vagner (Levski Sofia), Stanislav Manolev and Mihail Venkov (Litex Lovech); midfielders Stiliyan Petrov (Aston Villa), Martin Petrov (Manchester City), Chavdar Yankov (Hannover), Stanislav Angelov and Dimitar Rangelov (Energie Cottbus), Velizar Dimitrov (Metallurh Donetsk), Stanislav Genchev (FC Vaslui), Blagoi Georgiev (Slavia Sofia), Ivelin Popov (Litex Lovech); strikers Dimitar Berbatov (Manchester United) and Zdravko Lazarov (CSKA Sofia).

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!