England v Bulgaria: Stanimir Stoilov warns referee over Wayne Rooney temperament
Bulgaria coach Stanimir Stoilov has called for referee Viktor Kassai to protect his players should England striker Wayne Rooney lose his cool in Friday's Euro 2012 qualifier at Wembley.
toilov insists his players will not try to wind up Rooney as he looks to make amends for a disappointing World Cup in which he failed to score in four matches.
But he wants the Hungarian official to ensure Rooney is made to toe the line should nerves get the better of him in his desire to win over the England fans.
The Manchester United star was subject to boos from some sections of fans during last month's friendly international with Hungary.
Stoilov said: ''Rooney has great skills. I have to teach my players how to stop him on the pitch, not how to provoke him.
''That is not the style of the Bulgarian national team who have come over here to play fairly.
''But if Rooney is nervous because of his lack of goals, he should be punished if he is too aggressive.''
England and coach Fabio Capello will be under pressure to produce a positive performance and result after the woeful showing in South Africa.
But Stoilov believes they should have few problems in dealing with the situation in front of 70,000 plus fans.
He said: ''It is a problem the players of England have to deal with but I don't think it is a serious problem because most of them are used to playing under pressure.''
Stoilov also feels England's fortunes in the World Cup could have been different had Frank Lampard's 'goal' against Germany been allowed to stand when the ball was clearly over the goal-line.
He said: ''I saw that game and it was decided by a refereeing mistake.
''If Lampard's goal had been allowed, the score would have been 2-2 and it would have been a different result because England would have had the psychological edge.''
As regards his own team's tactics, Stoilov said: ''We are not coming to Wembley just to defend.
''In a game like this, a win for us would be the perfect result but we hope not to lose.
'We have to fight to achieve that goal but we will try to play football and, in a game like this, you never know.''
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