Belarus has never competed in either a World Cup or European Championship, and despite collecting a respectable 12 points from 10 group matches, they failed to qualify for Euro 2024, finishing fourth and just three points behind the playoff position.

Carlos Alos has been in charge of the White Wings since December 2023 and holds a record of two wins, four draws, and four defeats from 10 games. His team has failed to win or score in four matches so far in 2024.

Ranked 99th in the world by FIFA, Belarus will be eager to avoid a repeat of their last international break in June when they suffered back-to-back 4-0 defeats in friendlies against Russia and Israel.

Belarus will also strive to significantly improve on their performance in the previous Nations League campaign where they failed to win any of their six matches in League C Group 3 and finished at the bottom behind Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Slovakia.

The White Wings can be optimistic about success on Thursday as they have won against Bulgaria in their last two meetings. However, their last encounter was in February 2020 when they secured a narrow 1-0 friendly win away from home.

Like Belarus, Bulgaria failed to qualify for Euro 2024 after a dismal campaign in which they did not secure a single victory in any of their eight group matches, conceding 14 goals in the process.

Mladen Krstajic was relieved of his duties in October 2023 following a nine-game winless streak across all competitions, including four consecutive defeats. Current boss Ilian Iliev has since stabilized the team with one win and five draws in his first six matches over the past 10 months.

Bulgaria's only triumph during this period was a narrow 1-0 friendly victory over Tanzania. They have also secured draws against Hungary, Serbia, Azerbaijan, Romania and Slovenia, with the latter two matches ending in stalemates in June.

Ranked 82nd in the world by FIFA, Bulgaria finished second in League C Group 4 of the 2022-23 Nations League, winning two games and drawing three out of their six matches and finishing seven points behind group winners Georgia.

The Lions now head into Thursday's opening fixture of the new Nations League seeking to claim their first win over Belarus since November 2016 when they emerged victorious with a scoreline of 1-0 on home soil during the 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign.

Belarus possible starting lineup:

Pavlyuchenko; Volkov, Martynovich, Polyakov; Ebong, Gromyko, Yablonskiy, Klimovich, Pechenin; Bakhar, Antilevski

Bulgaria possible starting lineup:

Dyulgerov; Tombak, Petkov, Antov, Lyaskov; Gruev, Kostadinov; Despodov, Krastev, M. Minchev; G. Minchev

Prediction:Belarus 1-2 Bulgaria

Belarus vs Bulgaria stream and TV listing

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