Berba: “When I saw that Spurs had drawn a Bulgarian team, I thought ’yes!’”

Who better than Dimitar Berbatov to give us the lowdown on our Bulgarian opponents Lokomotiv Plovdiv ahead of this evening’s Europa League second qualifying round tie?

One of the country’s favourite footballing sons, ‘Berba’ began his career at CSKA Sofia before moving to Bayer Leverkusen and then onto Spurs in 2006. He formed a lethal partnership with Robbie Keane in 2006/07 and 2007/08, together, scoring 90 goals, including the equaliser in our League Cup win against Chelsea in 2008. He moved to Manchester United in 2008 before spells at Fulham, Monaco, PAOK and Kerala Blasters.

Currently back home in Sofia, ‘looking after my Foundation, first and foremost’, Dimitar, 48 goals in 78 caps for Bulgaria, spoke to us earlier this week.

“Lokomotiv Plovdiv is a good team for our standard of football,” Berba explained. “They won the cup back-to-back, which shows good performances and good consistency, they have young players, experienced players, that mix, and a good coach.

“Of course, when you compare to the English league, okay, there is no comparison. Lokomotiv will be the underdogs here, but you know the saying, never underestimate the underdogs, because you know what will happen!

“Bulgarian clubs try to take the opportunity to show what they can do when they play in Europe and that is why it’s such a good opportunity for the Lokomotiv players to show their qualities, because you never know, one game could make the difference in your career.

“You can expect good resistance from Lokomotiv but it's a pity because there are no fans. That experience in the stadium is something unique, like we do it in the Balkans. But that support is gone, so the atmosphere will be different.

“Lokomotiv have nothing to lose, they can go out there and enjoy it, take risks, play their football. Let’s see what happens!”