BULGARIA national soccer team head coach Ilian Iliev refuses to believe Taifa Stars will be easy opponents in Friday's international friendly between the two squads at the Dalga Arena Stadium, which is located 30 km outside of Baku, Azerbaijan.

Tanzania is positioned 38 places behind Bulgaria in the FIFA rankings and has never qualified for the World Cup in the team’s history.

However, the Bulgarian coach pointed out that Taifa Stars played in the African Cup of Nations finals in January and insisted he is expecting them to be a threat.

The tactician revealed: “First of all, I want to note that we accepted the offer to participate in this tournament, as Azerbaijan creates very good conditions for us. Also, we won't have to travel too far for these two games.”

“In addition, the national team of Azerbaijan itself is very good. This is a serious opponent - a team that beat Sweden 3-0 deserves respect,” he pointed out.

“In addition, the national team of Azerbaijan has many players from Karabakh, which competes successfully in the Europa League,” the coach disclosed.

“As for the national team of Tanzania, they are also a good team that participated in the last African Cup of Nations. It will be interesting to play against them as well.”

He insisted: “Creating illusions that we are going to play with weak teams is not so. We should not start with the attitude that we are playing teams below our level. The main thing I want to see is that I want us to be better than the previous two games.”

Iliev insisted: "We will now show the players footage of Tanzania from the Africa Cup of Nations. They will be introduced to the team scheme.”

“There is a change of coach for the hosts, but I hope there will be no big changes to surprise us with. It will be best to look strong and look for good results."

FIFA is launching a new project called the ‘FIFA Series’. According to the new project, instead of the official friendly games on the FIFA calendar, a mini-tournament will be organized with the participation of national teams from different confederations.

FIFA's idea with the introduction of the new tournament is to provide more matches, but also to pit teams against each other that would not meet anyway. There is currently no prize pool and no trophy will be awarded.

One of the first such competitions is planned to be held in Baku from March 18-26.

In addition to the 'FIFA Series' hosts Azerbaijan, the mini-tournament will involve Tanzania as the only African team, Bulgaria representing Europe, and Mongolia from the Asian continent.

Tanzania will tomorrow open their campaign against Bulgaria, the same day hosts Azerbaijan face Mongolia. Bulgaria and Tanzania have never met before.

Taifa Stars will return to action on March 25 against Mongolia, while Azerbaijan faces Mongolia.