Sat, Feb 11 2012

Bulgaria's Premier League stars to sit out Shakhtar Donetsk friendly

Thu, Nov 12 2009 13:50 CET

byNick Iliev

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Bulgaria's Premier League stars to sit out Shakhtar Donetsk friendly

Martin Petrov

Bulgaria will be without its three ‘English’ top guns for the friendly against Uefa Cup champions Shakhtar Donetsk at the Kemal Ataturk Stadium in the Turkish resort city of Antalya on November 13, Bulgarian National Television (BNT) reported.

Manchester United striker Dimitar Berbatov, Aston Villa midfielder Stiliyan Petrov and Manchester City winger Martin Petrov have been sidelined with injuries and will miss the encounter, although they are likely to participate in the side's next friendly against Malta on November 18.

The Bulgarian squad will be further watered down by the absences of right-back Stanislav Manolev and central defender Plamen Nikolov, who have been diagnosed with a viral infection, BNT said.

Meanwhile, Shakhtar Donetsk will also field a significantly weakened because eight first-team players - Yuriy Virt, Rustam Khudzhamov, Oleksandr Kucher, Vyacheslav Shevchuk, Vasyl Kobin, Yaroslav Rakytskiy and Oleksiy Gai - will be on international duty with Ukraine.

Furthermore, Shakhtar are scheduled to meet arch-rivals Dinamo Kiev in their next match, which means that Romanian head coach Mircea Lucescu is likely to rest his Brazilian stars - Jadson, Ilsinho, Fernandinho and Luiz Adriano.

Kick off is at 7pm Bulgarian time.

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