England, players and supporters alike, will want to swiftly forget the summer of 2010 and the World Cup in South Africa. It was hailed as what should be England's year and the end of 44 years of hurt. Instead, it transpired as the worst Three Lions performance in the history of World Cup football.

England will want to bounce back, and restore pride and passion among the ranks. They will want to put the misery of 2010 behind them and concentrate on the future – and herein lies the problem: England's first competitive match is against Bulgaria at home. Bulgaria itself is having enough problems, failing to qualify for the World Cup, and the prospect of facing a rejuvenated, bitter England, ready to take its frustration out on Stanimir Stoilov's men, sounds morbidly unappealing.

England warmed up for their September 3 Euro 2012 Group G qualifier against Bulgaria with an unconvincing performance against Hungary. It took Liverpool skipper Steven Gerrard to score a brace in four second-half minutes to save more embarrassment for the Three Lions and manager Fabio Capello before the home crowd at Wembley on August 11. Bulgaria meanwhile, lost their last friendly match ahead of the crucial encounter 1-0 in St Petersburg against Russia, the match being relocated from Moscow because of the raging fires around the Russian capital city at the time.

And thus, lacking confidence, let alone a winning mentality, Bulgaria is heading for London. If the Bulgarians survive the onslaught, four days later, on September 7, the team will face Montenegro, while on October 8 it will have to return to the British Isles to play Wales at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, this last match wrapping up Bulgaria's competitive commitments for 2010.

Fabio Capello has vowed that he will personally oversee a major overhaul of the Three Lions and bring new blood into the squad. Best intentions aside, it is a completely different matter if this is at all feasible – and to what extent. Some of those new players, like Arsenal youngsters Jack Wilshere and Kieran Gibbs, were included against Hungary, as well as Ashley Young and Joe Hart in goal. Even Adam Johnson, who was deemed "too nervous" to go to the World Cup, was deployed. Capello experimented with Michael Dawson, who was brought on for John Terry, but the fact is that England still struggled, at home, against a country ranked 62nd in the world.

England's most prolific goal scorer Wayne Rooney is still firing blanks, so Capello just might have to rely on inspirational skipper Gerrard, and the likes of Carlton Cole and Bobby Zamora, as Jermain Defoe, sidelined with injury will miss the qualifier.

Bulgarian head coach Stoilov will have similar problems of his own. Manchester United striker Dimitar Berbatov quit the national football team on May 11, saying his time was up. Berbatov also recalled all the unsuccessful attempts of the national side to qualify for a major football tournament. The last and the only such contest in which Berbatov appeared was Euro 2004 in Portugal. Recently, Stoilov told Bulgarian media that "the doors for Berbatov are always open, but no one will beg him to return".

With Berbatov gone, the captaincy is now assumed by Aston Villa skipper Stiliyan Petrov, while Stoilov has called a total of 20 "legionnaires" for the clashes against England and Montenegro, with the squad not much different from the one that lost to Russia in the last friendly. Among the notable returns are Valeri Domovchiiski, who has been playing well and scoring for Hertha Berlin. Georgi Peev is returning as well, after being sidelined against Russia with an injury, while Blagoi Georgiev is still out.

In attack, Bulgaria will have plenty of options to choose from the likes of Parma's Valeri Bojinov, Dimitar Rangelov, Ivelin Popov (who recently joined Blackburn Rovers), Martin Kambourov, while the midfield will feature Petrov, Stanislav Angelov, Stanislav Genchev, Nikolai Dimitrov, Peev, Martin Petrov and Chavdar Yankov.

Defending the Bulgarian goal will be entrusted to Zhivko Milanov, Ivan Ivanov, Ilian Stoyanov, Stanislav Manolev and Zachari Sirakov, while on goal will be either Nikolai Mihailov or Vladislav Stoyanov. Out of the 23-strong squad, Stoilov has so far only named 20 – all of them playing abroad, with three more players to be included at a later date.

Bulgaria is pitted in Group G also against Switzerland, Wales and Montenegro, which considering the current state of the Bulgarian national team, means that qualification for Euro 2012 is going to be a very arduous task, indeed. Can Bulgaria get a result at Wembley? Better chances of hell freezing over, but miracles do happen.