Slovak national football team / world championships

Slovakia
Slovakia

World Cup record goalscorer:	Róbert Vittek (4)
World Cup record players:	Ján Popluhár (9 for Czechoslovakia) 6 players each 4 games for Slovakia
Rank :	55
Balance sheet
4 World Cup games 1 win 1 draw 2 defeats 5: 7 goals
statistics
First World Cup game Slovakia 1: 1 New Zealand Rustenburg ( ZAF ); June 15, 2010
Biggest World Cup victory Slovakia 3-2 Italy Johannesburg ( ZAF ); June 24, 2010
Biggest World Cup defeat Slovakia 0: 2 Paraguay Bloemfontein ( ZAF ); June 20, 2006
successes
World Championship
Participation in the finals	1 ( first : 2010 )
Best results	Round of 16 2010
Best placements in the countries that host the FIFA World Cup
(Status: after the 2018 World Cup )

The article contains a detailed description of the Slovak national soccer team at soccer world championships . Slovakia first took part in a World Cup finals and was previously part of Czechoslovakia. After Czechoslovakia split up, FIFA assigned its results to both Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Recently only the Czech Republic has been seen as the successor to Czechoslovakia. This is why the FIFA statistics for the Czech Republic include the matches and most of the players from Czechoslovakia. Slovakia is in 56th place in the all-time table of World Cup finalists .

overview

year	Host country	Participation until ...	Last opponent	Result	Trainer	Comments and special features
1998	France	not qualified				In the qualification of Spain and Yugoslavia failed.
2002	South Korea / Japan	not qualified				In the qualification of Sweden and Turkey failed.
2006	Germany	not qualified				In the qualification in the relegation games of the group runners-up, Spain failed after finishing second behind Portugal in the group stage .
2010	South Africa	Round of 16	Netherlands	16.	Vladimir Weiss	3-2 win over defending champions Italy
2014	Brazil	not qualified				In the qualification of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Greece failed.
2018	Russia	not qualified				In the qualification behind England the direct qualification and as the worst runners-up in the group missed the playoffs

Statistics (data including 2018: 21 World Championships; percentages are rounded)

• Unqualified: 5 × (24%; 1998, 2002, 2006, 2014 and 2018)
• Sports qualification: 1 × (5% or 17% of the attempts)
  • Round of 16: 1 × (5%; 2010)

1930 to 1994

Until 1939 Slovakia was part of Czechoslovakia and did not have an independent national football team, Slovak players were part of the joint Czechoslovak team. In 1930 Czechoslovakia did not participate. In 1934 she lost to host Italy in the World Cup final and became vice world champion for the first time. In 1938 she was eliminated in the World Cup quarter-finals after two games against Brazil .

The Slovak Republic was created in March 1939 when Czechoslovakia was politically broken up . As an independent FIFA member, Slovakia played 16 international matches. After the end of the Second World War in 1945, Slovakia again became part of the newly founded Czechoslovakia.

With the exception of the 1950 World Cup, Czechoslovakia then took part in all eleven subsequent World Cup qualifications from 1954 to 1994. Czechoslovakia successfully entered the qualification six times (1954, 1958, 1962, 1970, 1982 and 1990) and was able to qualify for the World Cup finals. Her best placement was in 1962 when she lost to defending champions Brazil in the World Cup final.

While qualifying for the 1994 World Cup was still ongoing , Czechoslovakia was dissolved on January 1, 1993, and the two successor states, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, emerged. The remaining qualifying matches were held by a joint team called the Selection of Czechs and Slovaks (Representation of Czechs and Slovaks, RCS). It was not until January 1994 that two separate teams appeared. The selection of Czechs and Slovaks could not qualify for the 1994 World Cup in the USA, they only finished third behind the teams from Romania and Belgium that qualified for the 1994 World Cup .

1998 in France

For the second World Cup in France , the Slovaks and the Czechs wanted to qualify with their own national teams for the first time and were drawn into a group. However, they only finished fourth and third with tied points behind Spain and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia , both of which could not win. The Faroe Islands and Malta had nothing to do with the outcome.

2002 in Japan and South Korea

In qualifying for the first World Cup in Asia , the Slovaks had to play against Sweden , Turkey , Macedonia , Moldova and Azerbaijan . With five wins, two draws and three defeats, they finished only third behind Sweden and Turkey. Reaching the playoffs of the runners-up in the group was gambled away by a 0-1 home defeat against Turkey on the third from last game day, whereby Turkey reached the playoffs instead and qualified for the second time for the World Cup and was surprisingly third there.

2006 in Germany

The Slovaks could not qualify for the 2006 World Cup in Germany either . In a group of seven with Portugal , Russia , Estonia , Latvia , Liechtenstein and Luxembourg they finished second, tied with the Russians, but with the better goal difference and the better direct comparison due to the away goals rule . They secured the playoff place with a 0-0 win in their last home game against Russia. They met Spain in the playoffs and lost 5-1 in Madrid . They couldn't compensate for this with a 1-1 draw in the second leg.

2010 in South Africa

→ Main article : Soccer World Cup 2010 / Slovakia

The Slovaks were then able to qualify for the first time for the first World Cup in Africa . Again they were drawn into a group with the Czechs, but now ended up in first place ahead of Slovenia , which reached the World Cup finals via the playoffs, the Czech Republic , Northern Ireland , Poland and San Marino . The qualification was secured by a 1-0 victory in Poland on the last day of the game, which gave them two points more than the Slovenes.

In South Africa they met New Zealand in their first World Cup game , which had qualified for the first time since 1982. After a goalless first half, Róbert Vittek scored the first World Cup goal for Slovakia in the 50th minute. In the third minute of stoppage time they had to accept the equalizer. For both teams this was the first point in a World Cup game. In the second game they were defeated by Paraguay 2-0. Since Italy and New Zealand had separated 1: 1 in the parallel game, the Slovaks were one point in the last group place before the last game day and needed a win against defending champions Italy to reach the knockout round. After 73 minutes they also led 2-0 with two goals from Róbert Vittek, but Antonio Di Natale scored the next goal for Italy in the 81st minute , which then pushed for an equalizer, which would have been enough for Italy to advance. In this urge phase, Kamil Kopúnek made it 3-1 for the Slovaks two minutes after being substituted on. The second goal by Fabio Quagliarella in stoppage time did not change anything and since Paraguay and New Zealand separated in the parallel game without goals, the Slovaks were second in the group behind Paraguay. Defending champions Italy were eliminated as the bottom of the group.

In the second round, the Slovaks then met the Netherlands and lost 2-1. Róbert Vittek scored the 1: 2 goal in the fourth minute of stoppage time with a penalty kick. With a total of four goals, he was the sixth top scorer of the tournament and only four players scored one more goal each.

2014 in Brazil

In qualifying for the second World Cup in Brazil , Slovakia, which has been coached by Stanislav Griga and Michal Hipp since April 2012 , met Bosnia-Herzegovina , Greece , Latvia , Liechtenstein and Lithuania . With a 2-1 home defeat against Bosnia-Herzegovina on September 10, 2013, Slovakia missed out on another World Cup qualification and only finished third. In June 2013, Griga and Hipp were released after a 1-1 draw in Liechtenstein. However, her successor Ján Kozák could not turn the tide. Under him, however, the Slovaks qualified for the 2016 European Championship and thus for the first time for a European Championship finals.

2018 in Russia

In the qualification , which began in September 2016, the Slovaks faced England , Scotland , Slovenia , Lithuania and Malta . After half of the games, of which the Slovaks won three and lost the first two, they were four points behind the English leaders in second place. This was repeated in the second half, bringing the gap to the English to eight Points increased, but second place was held. They benefited from the fact that the Scots only scored 2-2 on the last match day in Slovenia and conceded five more goals. So they were able to relegate the Scots tied to third place. Second place was ultimately not enough for the Slovaks either, as they were the worst runners-up in the group and missed the playoff games.

Ranking of the Slovak World Cup players with the most appearances

Róbert Vittek - best Slovak World Cup scorer

01. Ján Popluhár : 9 appearances in 2 tournaments

02. Andrej Kvašňák : 8 appearances in 2 tournaments

03. Jozef Adamec , Adolf Scherer : 6 appearances in 2 or 1 tournaments

05. Ľubomír Moravčík : 5 appearances in 1 tournament

06. Ján Ďurica , Marek Hamšík , Ján Kocian , Ján Mucha , Martin Škrtel , Miroslav Stoch and Róbert Vittek : 4 appearances in 1 tournament

Note: all players in italics played only for Czechoslovakia at World Championships.

Ranking of the Slovak World Cup players with the most goals

01. Róbert Vittek - 4 goals

02. Adolf Scherer - 3 goals

03. Ladislav Petráš - 2 goals

04. Kamil Kopúnek - 1 gate

Note: the players in italics scored the World Cup goals only for Czechoslovakia.

Slovak World Cup captains

• 1970: Alexander Horváth (1st and 2nd game, for Czechoslovakia)
• 2010: Marek Hamšík

Players banned from World Championships

• 2010: Zdeno Štrba received the second yellow card in the third group match against Italy and was suspended for the round of 16.

Share of players playing abroad in the World Cup squad

Legionnaires made up the majority in the squad when they first participated. Only Kamil Kopúnek and Kornel Saláta played in Slovakia.

Year (games)	Number (countries)	Players (stakes)
2010 (4)	21 (5 in Germany, 3 in England, 1 in Greece, 2 in Italy, 1 in the Netherlands, 1 in Poland, 2 in Romania, 1 in Russia, 1 in Scotland, 1 in the Czech Republic, 3 in Turkey)	Ján Ďurica , Erik Jendrišek (3), Peter Pekarík (3), Stanislav Šesták (2), Radoslav Zabavník (3); Marek Čech (1), Martin Škrtel (4), Vladimír Weiss (3); Zdeno Strba (3); Marek Hamšík (4); Miroslav Stoch (4); Jan Mucha (4); Ján Kozák (1), Dušan Kuciak (0); Martin Jakubko (1); Dušan Perniš (0); Juraj Kucka (3); Filip Hološko (2), Marek Sapara (1), Róbert Vittek (4)

Games

The Slovaks have played four World Cup games so far. One of them was won, two lost and one ended in a draw.

The Slovaks never took part in the opening game and never played against the hosts and the eventual world champions.

The Slovaks played against the defending champions once, but have not met a World Cup newcomer so far.

All games are unique so far. Both the victory and defeat against Paraguay are the highest against these countries.

All World Cup games
No.	date	Result	opponent		venue	occasion	Remarks
1	June 15, 2010	1: 1	New Zealand	*	Rustenburg ( ZAF )	Group game	First game against New Zealand
2	June 20, 2010	0: 2	Paraguay	*	Bloemfontein ( ZAF )	Group game	First game against Paraguay
3	June 24, 2010	3: 2	Italy	*	Johannesburg ( ZAF )	Group game
4th	June 28, 2010	1: 2	Netherlands	*	Durban ( ZAF )	Round of 16	First game against the Netherlands

See also

• Football World - Statistics - Slovakia on fifa.com
• fifa.com: "Statistical overview: records and milestones"

References and footnotes

1. ↑ Slovak players in Italy (1934, 1990), France (1938), Switzerland (1954), Sweden (1958), Chile (1962), Mexico (1970) and Spain (1982) with the Czechoslovak team.
2. ↑ fifa.com: Czech Republic
3. ↑ The placements from 5th place onwards were determined by FIFA without any placement games. See: All-time FIFA World Cup Ranking 1930-2010 (PDF; 200 kB)
4. ↑ uefa.com: "Griga and Hipp relieved of Slovakia duties"