Slovenia’s Euro 2012 qualifying campaign reviewed…

A guest blog post today, from our man in Luxembourg, and the fellow responsible for introducing me to the intricacies and lunacies of Slovenian football – Paul Townend: 

First ever Slovenian victory against another ex-Yugo team – so that’s something. A very odd campaign – the journalists of Gazzetta dello Sport were actually kakking their pants before the Slo-Italy fixture and were bewildered that Iličić didn’t play. Fair enough for Kek to play his established system, but if your opposition are scared of one of your players, should you really leave him on the bench?

(Former national team manager, Branko) Oblak’s Slovenia beat Italy before gradually succumbing to all and sundry, and there was a real chance to put another one over on the four time world champions, but it was too much chat and not enough on the pitch. 

Zahovič was one of many reckoning Slovenia would beat Italy at home, but before the Italy match away he was more circumspect. He did, however, give his backing to Kek, after Oblak had castigated for the home defeat to Estonia, pointing out that only “gospod Katanec” had the right to criticise Kek’s managerial record, while pointing out that Oblak failed to qualify from “the easiest group in the history of Slovenian football”. An amusing continuation of the three-way feud between Slovenia’s top 3 footballers of all time, with the new twist of one of the supporting one of the others.

Kek took a lot of flak for sticking with Koren and others when they seemed to be performing poorly, but ultimately you can’t lose three at home and go through. What’s galling is that managing to draw at home to Estonia and Norn Iron would have secured a play-off spot, but instead a team that lost to the Faroes once, and came back to win after being 1-0 down after the 90th minutes at home to the Faroes now has a play-off match against an over-confident and very beatable Ireland side …

A wasted opportunity, but the coming World Cup qualifications could well compete with Oblak’s easiest ever group – Norway as top seeds has to be the easiest since well, when we qualified for Euro 2000, while the rest of the teams are familiar and eminently beatable foes (Switzerland, Albania, Cyprus and Iceland).

Plan and prepare for those games properly and Slovenia SHOULD be challenging for top spot – having beaten a Yugo team for the first time, it’s time to stop the Scandinavian hoo-doo next.

A brief history of Slovenia v. Serbia: Drawing Comparisons…

Serbia’s visit to Maribor on Tuesday will be the first meeting between the teams in the second city. Hopefully the match will be a straight winner takes all, although Slovenia’s slim hopes rest on results elsewhere, indeed, it’s possible that they’ll be out of the running by the time the match rolls round, following Serbia’s tie with Italy on Friday. As things stand, Slovenia are three points behind Serbia but have a goal difference of +3, as opposed to Serbia’s current +2. However, if Slovenia are fortunate enough that Estonia are put out of the picture (that’s a massive ‘if’), then tie-breaks in the European Championship qualifiers are decided on the following criteria first:

1.  Higher number of points obtained in the group matches played among the teams in question

2.  Superior goal difference from the group matches played among the teams in question

3.  Higher number of goals scored in the group matches played among the teams in question

4.  Higher number of goals scored away from home in the group matches played among the teams in question

5.  If, after applying criteria 1) to 4) to several teams, two or more teams still have an equal ranking, the criteria 1) to 4) will be reapplied to determine the ranking of these teams. If this procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria 6) and 7) will apply (courtesy of Wikipedia)

Criteria six is: Superior goal difference, followed by goals scored, away goals, fair play.  The final resort (criteria seven) is to draw lots.

The story so far…

Surprisingly, for teams that are considered so differently matched (Serbia a sleeping giant and Slovenia over-achieving minnows), you can’t get a Rizla between these two. Keener drawers than Rolf Harris, the record between the teams in all competitions reads: Played 5, Drawn 5.

The first encounter between the teams was the famous 3:3 played against ‘Yugoslavia’ in Group C of Euro 2000.  Slovenia’s first ever match on the big-stage, the (first) golden generation turned out an impressive result that could have been so much more impressive. 3:0 up by the hour mark courtesy of two goals from Zlatko Zahovič (who else) and Miran Pavlin. Perhaps the spotlight was too bright, but over the following quarter of an hour the team shipped goals in an obscene fashion. Decent performances against Spain and Norway were to follow, but in the end the team finished bottom of the group.

Shortly after, qualifying for the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea paired the teams together once more. Here Slovenia were to get their revenge: although both ties between the teams finished  1:1, it was the Slovenes who were to finish above their southern opponents in the play-off spot of Group 1, just 3 points behind Russia. Slovenia went on to play Romania who they beat 3:2 over two legs to qualify for their first ever World Cup, where Zahovič was to make a name for himself for entirely different reasons.

The next meeting was a 1:1 draw during a friendly in Ljubljana in 2004. The same scoreline was repeated in the first meeting between the teams in this qualifying campaign. The tie in Belgrade saw Slovenia pull ahead through a Milivoje Novakovič goal in the 63^rd minute. The Serbs later levelled the tie through Birmingham-based carthorse and occasional goal-scorer Nikola Žigić.

If you’re looking for a flutter during this round of qualifiers, then past form would make this look like a nailed-on draw. Probably bodes well for the Estonians…

Team to face Serbia on October 11th:

Goalkeepers: Samir Handanovič (Udinese), Jasmin Handanovič (Maribor), Vid Belec (Crotone).

Defenders: Mišo Brečko (1. FC Köln), Marko Šuler (Gent), Boštjan Cesar (Chievo), Branko Ilič (Lokomotiv Moscow), Bojan Jokić (Chievo), Miral Samardžić (Sheriff Tiraspol), Matej Mavrič (Kapfenberg).

Midfielders: Valter Birsa (Genoa), Andraž Kirm (Wisła Kraków), Aleksandar Radosavljevič (ADO Den Haag), Josip Iličić (Palermo), Armin Bačinović (Palermo), Dare Vršič (Olimpija Ljubljana), Rene Krhin (Bologna).

Forwards: Zlatan Ljubijankič (Gent), Milivoje Novakovič (1. FC Köln), Zlatko Dedič (Dynamo Dresden), Tim Matavž (PSV).

Maribor’s Jasmin Handanovič and Olimpija’s Dare Vršič are the Prva Liga’s only representatives. I might be wrong, but this may be the last time that Slovenia play in white and green, but there will be more on that later…

Transfer window slams shut on Slovenian football…

Or rather, it doesn’t.  All this talk of slamming shut, deadline day, nonsense.  Apart from as an effective synonym for ‘anti-climax’, the deadline day is an exercise in limp non-activity and lurid hyperbole (largely courtesy of Sky Sports).

But, as Slovenia isn’t an island (and, by the way, David Pleat, et al, who are calling for the transfer deadline to occur ‘when the season begins’, it doesn’t start in August for everyone. Countries that have what can legitimately be called winters, such as Slovenia, engineer a winter break and the Slovenes began their season on the 16^th July), anyway, as Slovenia exists in the world of football, there were a few comings and goings to note.  This will probably be far from exhaustive, so let me know if there are any I’ve missed:

Olimpija centre back David Kašnik has moved to Sheffield Wednesday on loan until January.

Enes Rujovič has also moved from Olimpija, heading for Triglav Kranj.

Maribor have picked up 22 year old Croatian Zoran Lesjak from Nafta Lendava.

Moving the other way, Gabriel Da Silva has moved from Maribor to Nafta on loan.

Mitja Resek also left Maribor on loan, this time heading to Heerenveen in the Dutch Eredivisie.

There’s no Olimpija/Maribor bias on here, it’s just quite tricky to find out about other transfers at the moment!