Estonia will welcome Bulgaria to the Lillekula Stadium in Tallinn for Monday's UEFA Nations League encounter. 

The hosts, who have secured a top-two finish, could still achieve automatic promotion, while the visitors only have pride to play for on the final matchday of the league phase.

Match preview

Having been in the bottom two tiers for all five editions of the Nations League, Estonia have put themselves in a position to win promotion to League B for the very first time.

Jurgen Henn's side are guaranteed at least a promotion playoff spot after winning the draw and drawing three of their five matches in Group 4C.

In fact, they have recorded four consecutive shutouts since playing out a 1-1 draw with Iceland on the first matchday.

Their latest clean sheet enabled them to pick up a 1-0 victory in Saturday's away clash against Luxembourg, which came courtesy of Maksim Paskotsi's second goal of the 2026-27 Nations League campaign. 

Sitting in second spot and two points adrift of Iceland, Estonia know they need a win and Luxembourg to claim three points in Reykjavik if they are to snatch automatic promotion on the final matchday.

That would require Estonia to pick up their first-ever win against Bulgaria, having drawn two and lost one of their previous three meetings. 

Bulgaria already know they will be competing in League C next time around after falling hopefully short in their promotion bid, mustering just four points from their five matches in Group C4.

After taking just a point from their first three games, Bulgaria finally ended their five-game winless run in all internationals with a 2-0 away victory over Luxembourg in their final outing of the September/October international break.

However, they failed to build upon that result in their most recent outing against Iceland, as they slumped to a demoralising 5-0 defeat in Plovdiv, ensuring they will end the league phase without a home win to their name.

While they cannot finish any higher than third, the Lions are still at risk of dropping to the bottom of the group, with just a point separating them from Luxembourg in fourth position. 

Bulgaria may be unbeaten in three meetings against Estonia, but they had to settle for a goalless draw in their only previous away encounter in European Championship qualifying in April 2003.

Their hopes of troubling the scorers on this occasion may be tempered by the fact they have failed to score in three of their last four outings, including a stalemate in September's reverse fixture between these two nations. 

Estonia Nations League form:

Estonia form (all competitions):

Bulgaria Nations League form:

Bulgaria form (all competitions):

Team News

Henn could opt for consistency by naming the same lineup that started Friday's narrow win over Luxembourg.

Friday's match-winner Paskotsi will feature alongside Erko Tougjas and Karol Mets in central defence, while Rasmus Peetson and Michael Schjonning-Larsen are set to operate as the two wing-backs.

At the opposite end of the pitch, Patrik Kristal will lead the line with Mattias Mannilaan, who is aiming to bring his club form to the international stage after netting five goals in his last four games for Kalju. 

As for the visitors, they are unable to call upon Martin Minchev, who withdrew from the squad last week due to injury.

With Ribarski likely to make alterations, Ivan Turitsov and Dimitar Velkovski are in contention to feature in the backline on Monday. 

Martin Petkov, Ivaylo Chochev and Georgi Lazarov are also among those who could come into Ribarski's thinking.

Estonia possible starting lineup:

Hein; Peetson, Paskotsi, Tougjas, Mets, Schjonning-Larsen; Kait, Palumets, Shein; Mannilaan, Kristal

Bulgaria possible starting lineup:

Naumov; Turitsov, Velkov, Tsenov, Velkovski; Kraev, Gruev; L Petkov, Chochev, M Petkov; Lazarov

We say: Estonia 1-0 Bulgaria

Estonia have proven to be a tough team to break down in Group C4, and considering Bulgaria have failed to score in three of their last four games, we think the hosts could edge a cagey contest on Monday. 

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.