“It’s hard to win if you don’t score” – Leeds United player left frustrated, hoping for better quickly

Ilia Gruev has been left frustrated after Bulgaria failed to beat Belarus on Thursday evening, despite having the better of the UEFA Nations League match.

The defensive midfielder moved to Leeds United from Werder Bremen in July 2023 and worked his way to becoming a regular starter under Daniel Farke.

Gruev has started every Championship match so far this season, and the Whites find themselves in fourth after four games.

With his national team, the 24-year-old has 17 caps and started the match against Belarus, which was the first in Group D of the UEFA Nations League.

Despite Gruev very much believing his country had the better chances, and should have taken some, the match finished goalless and that left him somewhat frustrated when speaking to the Bulgarian media afterwards.

Dsport quote the Leeds United player as saying: “We played harder, we should have scored in the first half. It’s hard to win if you don’t score in a game like this. They pulled back, it was more difficult for us. We got a red card, maybe both teams got tired. The result is the most important thing, we took a point, on Sunday the game should be the same but with a different result.”

Having played against Belarus in Hungary, Bulgaria next face Northern Ireland at home and will be hoping they can take all three points from that match.