Bulgarian skipper Stiliyan Petrov hopes that England will not be able to beat Bulgaria in the group qualifiers for the European Championship is 2012. The Aston Villa midfielder also believes England will not win another major international tournament unless the Premier League institutes a mid-winter break, he told mass-circulation Daily Mirror.

Bulgaria will begin its Uefa Euro 2012 campaign in Group G with a trip to Wembley against England on September 3 2010. Bulgaria's second British opponent in the group is Wales.

Petrov said he hopes Bulgaria can upset England in their first competitive match since the World Cup. "I hope it could be like that, but it could just as easily be the worst time to meet them because there will be new players looking to make an impact," the Daily Mirror quoted him as saying.

"I’m looking forward to it, and I’ve no doubt Capello will make quite a few changes. So we know we will need to be ready tactically and mentally.

Regarding England's abysmal performance in the World Cup, which left many disappointed from what was originally hailed as one of the countries with a strong potential to lift the trophy, the Bulgarian said: "I wasn’t surprised at England’s performance in South Africa because if you look at most of the players, the amount of games they had played is unbelievable." 

"Every single country has a winter break, they have two or three weeks at Christmas and New Year, but in that time the English probably play 11 or 12 games and that’s really hard for them" he said.

"They are human. You can see Wayne Rooney and how he was outstanding during the season, but then in the World Cup he wasn’t sharp at all. But if you understand the amount of games he played in the season I think it’s normal.

"They need to be fresh. Look how fresh other teams were and it wasn’t surprising, to be honest, that England struggled."