Source Notes

Unfortunately, Bulgaria were no soft touch on a grey afternoon at Wembley and England were held to a scoreless draw.  The home side defended well enough, Lee and Le Saux occasionally sparkled in midfield, but England struggled to put any decent attacking moves together at all.  Rather embarrassingly, the only effort on target in the whole match was a tame header from Andy Hinchcliffe on 31 minutes that Zdravkov could probably have saved in his sleep.

England looked ponderous and predictable within a 3-5-2 formation.  To be fair, Hoddle's options had been seriously reduced before the game started: Beckham was suspended after his spat with Simeone in France, McManaman and Parlour were injured and Merson was back at the team's hotel with a back problem.  So where were the players to put in the crosses for Owen and Shearer?

For once the boy wonder looked less than lethal.  He only had one chance to use his dazzling speed and then he tripped over his feet running onto Scholes' pass late in the first half.  That was unexpected and so was Sol Campbell's miss with a header from a well-worked corner routine.  An England goal would surely have changed the character of the match completely - but it didn't come and a fairly unambitious Bulgarian team held on for a draw.

There were jeers at the end from a sell-out Wembley crowd who had clearly hoped for something better from a team with the whole country behind them at the World Cup.  The fortunate thing was that England had another qualifying fixture in just four days' time against the weakest country in the group.  Three points then would quickly improve their standing in Group 5. - The Official F.A. and England Yearbook 1999-2000.

TheFA.com
Original newspaper reports
Official teamsheet
UEFA match report
Rothman's Yearbooks
F.A. Yearbook
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CG