Ask Bulgarian football fans which team they would least like to see play against Bulgaria, and Sweden is bound to be among those mentioned first. Other teams might have an even better record against Bulgaria, but none raise quite the same spectre of dread that Sweden does.

So Germany has a dreadful record against Brazil, but who doesn’t? Brazil themselves went through a patch in the mid- to late 1990s when they did poorly against Norway, and England have not won against Romania in seven matches going back to 1970, losing three of those.

What sets Sweden vs Bulgaria apart from the bad streaks other teams might experience is the sheer one-sidedness of it all. Sure, Sweden qualified for six out of eight finals tournaments held over the past 15 years, compared to Bulgaria’s four, of which only one was in the past decade.

But then again, on two of those occasions, it was precisely Sweden that kept Bulgaria out. Over that period, the two have met six times and Sweden won all six, scoring 17 goals in the process and conceding none.

Twice did they meet at final tournaments and both were unmitigated disasters for Bulgaria – a 0-4 defeat in the third-place final at the 1994 World Cup and an even worse drubbing, 0-5, in the group stages of the Euro 2004. Henrik Larsson scored in each and has a total of four goals against Bulgaria.

A joke making the rounds about the time of Euro 2004 illustrates just how resigned Bulgarian football fans have become when it comes to facing Sweden. So, Bulgaria plays Sweden and the Swedes have a free kick. The Bulgarian goalkeeper is giving instructions to the defenders in his wall when he notices one of them facing towards the goalposts. "Why are you facing the wrong way?" he asks.

"I don’t know about you, but I want to see the goal," is the reply.

Even before its losing streak, the best Bulgaria had to offer was a 1-1 draw in the qualifying tournament for the 1994 World Cup, its only goal coming from a penalty converted by Hristo Stoichkov. Bulgaria lost the away game 0-2.

It was not always so, Bulgaria winning the first two matches it played against Sweden in distant 1967 in the qualifying group for the European Championship the following year. One suspects that the sepia-tinged recollections of Bulgarian media, in which Sweden were handed a footballing lesson by their opponents, are somewhat one-sided, but the record does show Bulgaria winning 2-0 in Sweden and 3-0 at home on their way to winning a qualifying group that also had recent World Cup semi-finalists Portugal with Eusebio in their line-up.

Bulgaria is no football superpower, but then neither is Sweden. Surely a team that has ground draws against Italy and The Netherlands in recent years should be able to get a result against Sweden?

It could be that Sweden’s physical and counter-attacking style is the perfect match for Bulgaria’s brand of imperfect passing approach, aided by the fact that Bulgarian managers in recent years have felt compelled to take the game to their opponents and win to break the hoodoo, giving Sweden the ideal platform to play their preferred way. Or it may be just sheer rotten luck, take your pick. But it is beyond debate that Bulgarian fans absolutely loathe being paired against Sweden.

Mind you, there is a glimmer of hope. Just earlier this week, on June 8, the under-18 squads drew 1-1 in a friendly played in Pravets. Perhaps in five to 10 years’ time, the hoodoo might be finally broken.

The record
European qualifying, June 11 1967. Sweden 0, Bulgaria 2
European qualifying, November 12 1967. Bulgaria 3, Sweden 0
World Cup, June 15 1974. Bulgaria 0, Sweden 0
Friendly, September 24 1980. Bulgaria 2, Sweden 3
Friendly, August 12 1981. Sweden 1, Bulgaria 0
Friendly, September 26 1990. Sweden 2, Bulgaria 0
World Cup qualifying, October 17 1992. Sweden 2, Bulgaria 0
World Cup qualifying, September 8 1993. Bulgaria 1, Sweden 1
World Cup, July 16 1994. Sweden 4, Bulgaria 0
Euro 2000 qualifying, October 14 1998. Bulgaria 0, Sweden 1
Euro 2000 qualifying, September 4 1999.Sweden 1, Bulgaria 0
Euro 2004, June 14 2004. Sweden 5, Bulgaria 0
World Cup qualifying, March 26 2005. Bulgaria 0, Sweden 3
World Cup qualifying, September 3 2005. Sweden 3, Bulgaria 0

Played 14, won two, drawn two, lost 10. Eight goals scored, 26 conceded.