Portugal and Bulgaria fill their hotseats

by Setanta staff , 21 September 2010

Portugal and Bulgaria both have new national team coaches after appointing Paolo Bento and Lothar Mattheus respectively.


Former Sporting Lisbon boss Bento takes the helm of the Portuguese team, succeeding the sacked Carlos Queiroz, who failed to deliver as the side performed poorly in the World Cup and started their Euro 2012 qualification campaign badly.

He also had to sit out those opening qualification games (a 4-4 draw with Cyprus and 1-0 loss to Norway) because of a ban imposed upon him for disrupting a drugs test before the finals in South Africa.

Bento won 35 caps for Portugal during his playing days and has been given the nod after any attempt to lure Jose Mourinho from Real Madrid – even on a temporary basis – were frowned upon by Bernebeu chiefs.

The new man at the helm has twice won the Portuguese Cup with Sporting and has signed on until 2012, with his first game set to be against Denmark in October.

Meanwhile, Bulgaria will present Germany legend Mattheus as their new chief in the next few days.

The 49-year-old, who played for Germay 150 times, will take over from Stanimir Stoilov, who resigned after the 4-0 loss to England earlier this month and the German’s first game in charge will be against Wales on October 8.

He has previously coached Hungary, as well as several clubs including Austria’s Rapid Vienna.

Serbians Partizan Belgrade, Brazil's Atletico Paranaense, Austria’s Red Bull Salzburg and Israel's Maccabi Netanya all also feature on his CV.

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Pos
Team P W D L +/- PTS
1.
Man City
38
28
5
5
64
89
2.
Man Utd
38
28
5
5
56
89
3.
Arsenal
38
21
7
10
25
70
4.
Tottenham
38
20
9
9
25
69
5.
Newcastle
38
19
8
11
5
65
6.
Chelsea
38
18
10
10
19
64
7.
Everton
38
15
11
12
10
56
8.
Liverpool
38
14
10
14
7
52
9.
Fulham
38
14
10
14
-3
52
10.
West Brom
38
13
8
17
-7
47
11.
Swansea
38
12
11
15
-7
47
12.
Norwich
38
12
11
15
-14
47
13.
Sunderland
38
11
12
15
-1
45
14.
Stoke
38
11
12
15
-17
45
15.
Wigan
38
11
10
17
-20
43
16.
Aston Villa
38
7
17
14
-16
38
17.
QPR
38
10
7
21
-23
37
18.
Bolton
38
10
6
22
-31
36
19.
Blackburn
38
8
7
23
-30
31
20.
Wolverhampton
38
5
10
23
-43
25
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