Conveniently, Fifa released its updated rankings just ahead of Bulgaria’s crucial qualifiers on September 5 with Montenegro at home and with Italy away on September 9.

It may have come as a surprise to some, bearing in mind Bulgaria’s recent "accomplishments", but the country scaled four places and is currently perched in 19th place, leapfrogging Mexico, Ukraine, Romania, Turkey, Sweden (yes, Sweden) and Ireland. Bulgaria’s rivals in Group Eight are ranked as follows: Italy is fourth, Ireland 38th, Cyprus 76th, Montenegro 89th and Georgia 112, hence the home encounter against Montenegro, on paper at least, should not be too arduous.

Encouragingly, Bulgaria will go into the encounter without major casualties in the squad. Some Bulgarian media attempted to boost morale ahead of the match by announcing that "our players are substantially more expensive than their counterparts" - as if that’s in any way a determining factor. Bulgarian head coach Stanimir Stoilov’s side was evaluated at 13 million euro more than Montenegro following the latest transfers on the global football market, according to the German transfermarket.de.

Dimitar Berbatov, according to the Germans, stands at 33 million, whereas Martin Petrov is priced at 10 million pounds, although in England his actual market price was half that, between four and six million – and his transfer from Manchester City to Tottenham still collapsed.

Lastly, if Bulgarians really needed all that moral motivation for a home match against utter outsiders like Montenegro, Bulgaria has six players in the top five European football leagues to Montenegro’s three; Berbatov, Martin and Stiliyan Petrov in the Premiership, Dimitar Rangelov and Valeri Domovchiiski in the Bundesliga, and Valeri Bozhinov in the Italian Seria A.

For the opponents, Mirko Vucinic and Stefan Jovetic play in Italy and Milorad Pekovic plays for the German Mainz 05. None of this matters to the visitors, however. In a statement of defiance, Fiorentina forward Stefan Jovetic is certain that Montenegro will do the business against Bulgaria in Sofia.

"I scored two goals for Fiorentina against Sporting Lisbon last week and I am sure I can do that in Sofia – this has been one of the best weeks in my career," he said, quoted by Meridian Match. "I am sure neither the Bulgarians nor us will be content with a draw, we are both gunning for it, and I am sure it will be a quality game," he said.

Bulgaria is third in Group Eight, after six matches, with eight points, while Ireland are second with 13 points, with a match more, and Italy top with 14 points out of six outings. Mathematically, Bulgaria still has a chance of sneaking in for South Africa, but the six points from Montenegro at home and Italy away are absolutely essential – that and the hope that Ireland will slip along the way.