Slovenian national football team / world championships

Slovenia
Slovenija

World Cup record goalscorer:	5 players each 1 goal for Slovenia and Branko Oblak (1 for Yugoslavia)
World Cup record players:	Branko Oblak (5 for Yugoslavia) 21 players with 3 games each for Slovenia
Rank :	56
Balance sheet
6 World Cup games 1 win 1 draw 4 defeats 5:10 goals
statistics
First World Cup game Slovenia 1: 3 Spain Gwangju ( KOR ); June 2, 2002
Biggest World Cup victory Slovenia 1-0 Algeria Polokwane ( RSA ); June 13, 2010
Biggest World Cup defeats Slovenia 1: 3 Spain Gwangju ( KOR ); June 2, 2002 Slovenia 1: 3 Paraguay Jeju ( KOR ); June 12, 2002
successes
World Championship
Participation in the finals	2 ( first : 2002 )
Best results	Preliminary round 2002 , 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 Slovenian national soccer team at soccer world championships . Slovenia has taken part in two world championships so far. Slovenia was part of Yugoslavia until 1991. Players born in the area of ​​today's Slovenia did not play a major role in the Yugoslav team at the World Cup tournaments from 1930 to 1990 . Only the Slovenes Branko Oblak and Danilo Popivoda and Srečko Katanec took part in the world championships for Yugoslavia in 1974 and 1990 respectively. The successes of the Yugoslav team were initially attributed by FIFA to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which now only consists of Serbia and Montenegro, which also participated under this name in 1998 and then as Serbia and Montenegro in 2006 , and now to Serbia , which participated for the first time in 2010.

Overview

year	Host country	Participation until ...	Last opponent	Result	Trainer	Comments and special features
1994	United States	not participated				Slovenia was not yet a member of FIFA when qualifying began .
1998	France	not qualified				In the qualification of Denmark and Croatia failed.
2002	South Korea / Japan	Preliminary round	Spain , South Africa , Paraguay	30th	Srečko Katanec
2006	Germany	not qualified				In the qualification, the eventual world champions Italy and Norway failed, which also failed in the play-offs of the group runners-up.
2010	South Africa	Preliminary round	Algeria , USA , England	18th	Matjaž Kek
2014	Brazil	not qualified				In the qualification against Switzerland and Iceland failed, whereby Iceland also failed in the play-offs of the group runners-up.
2018	Russia	not qualified				In the qualification of England and Slovakia failed, but which also could not qualify as a bad tester second in the group.

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

• Participation as part of Yugoslavia: 8 × (40%; 1930, 1950, 1954, 1958, 1962, 1974, 1982 and 1990)
• Not qualified: 4 × (19%; 1998, 2006, 2014 and 2018)
• Athletic qualification: 2 × (10% or 33% of the attempts)
  • Preliminary round: 2 × (10%; 2002 and 2010)

WM 1930 to WM 1990

Slovenia was part of Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia registered for all world championships and was able to qualify for eight of the 14 World Cup finals. Slovenian players were only used in 1974 and 1990.

1994 World Cup in the United States

Slovenia had gained independence in 1991 and was admitted to FIFA in 1992, but the draw for the qualification took place in December 1991 when Slovenia was not yet a member of FIFA. Yugoslavia, drawn in Group 5, was excluded due to UN sanctions before qualifying began.

1998 World Cup in France

On April 24, 1996 Slovenia played a World Cup qualifier for the first time and lost 2-0 to Greece . The following two games against Denmark and Bosnia-Herzegovina were also lost. On April 2, 1997 then succeeded with the 3: 3 against Croatia, the first and only point win in the qualification. All other games were lost and Slovenia could not qualify as bottom group.

2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan

Four years later, qualification as second in the group was achieved via the playoffs. Slovenia did not lose a game in the group with Russia , FR Yugoslavia , Switzerland , Faroe Islands and Luxembourg . But since they didn't win five times either, the Slovenes had three points less than Russia in the end and had to play against Romania in the playoffs of the group runners-up. After a 2-1 win in the first leg, a 1-1 draw in the second leg was enough to qualify for the World Cup for the first time.

At the finals of the first World Cup in Asia , the team met Spain in their first World Cup game and lost 3-1. Sebastijan Cimirotič scored the first World Cup goal for Slovenia. They lost 1-0 to South Africa in the second game and 3-1 again in the last group game against Paraguay .

World Cup 2006 in Germany

For the second World Cup in Germany , Slovenia was in a group with Italy , Norway , Scotland , Belarus and Moldavia not qualify . Slovenia started with two wins - including a 1-0 win against eventual world champions Italy - and one draw, but then failed to win four games - including two defeats against Norway. A win against Moldova was then no longer enough, as the last two games were lost, so that in the end only 4th place jumped out.

2010 in South Africa

Slovenia and the USA before the second group game

In qualifying for the first World Cup in Africa , the Slovenes met Slovakia in a group of six , which was able to qualify for the first time, Northern Ireland , the Czech Republic , Poland and San Marino . With two points behind Slovakia, they took second place and reached the playoffs of the group runners-up. In this they met Russia and lost their first game in Russia 1: 2. With a 1-0 home game, Slovenia qualified for the World Cup finals due to the away goals rule .

At the finals they met Algeria in their first game and won a World Cup game for the first time with a goal from Robert Koren . In the second game against the USA they had to accept the 2: 2 at halftime after leading them 2-0. The third game against ex-world champions England was then lost 0: 1, so that Slovenia was eliminated as third in the group again in the preliminary round.

2014 in Brazil

The qualification for the second World Cup in Brazil was then missed again. In a group with Switzerland , Iceland , Norway , Albania and Cyprus , only the third place was taken.

2018 in Russia

In qualifying for the first World Cup final in Eastern Europe, the Slovenes will face England , Slovakia , Scotland , Lithuania and Malta in September 2016 . The Slovenes had the chance to qualify at least behind England for the playoff games of the group runners up until the last day of the game, but they needed a win against Scotland and the help of the Maltese against the Slovaks. In the 32nd minute, however, the Scots took the lead. The Slovenes were able to equalize 20 minutes later and even take the lead 20 minutes later. One minute before the end of the game they had to accept the equalizer and since the Slovaks won 3-0 in the parallel game against Malta, the Slovenes were eliminated. The draw was not enough for the Scots either, as they conceded five more goals than the Slovaks with the same number of points. The Slovaks missed the playoff games as the worst runner-up in the group.

Ranking of the Slovenian World Cup players with the most appearances

01. Milenko Ačimovič , Valter Birsa , Mišo Brečko , Aleš Čeh , Boštjan Cesar , Sebastjan Cimirotič , Zlatko Dedič , Samir Handanovič , Bojan Jokic , Amir Karič , Andraž Kirm , Robert Koren , Zlatan Ljubijankič , Željko Milinović , Džoni Novak , Milivoje Novakovič , Milan Osterc , Miran Pavlin , Aleksander Radosavljevič , Mladen Rudonja and Marko Šuler : 3 appearances in one tournament

Ranking of the Slovenian World Cup players with the most goals

01. Milenko Ačimovič , Valter Birsa , Sebastjan Cimirotič , Robert Koren and Zlatan Ljubijankič - all 1 goal

World Cup captains

• 2002: Aleš Čeh
• 2010: Robert Koren

Slovenian players in the Yugoslav team

• 1930: none
• 1950: none
• 1954: none
• 1958: none
• 1962: none
• 1974: Branko Oblak (5), Danilo Popivoda (1)
• 1982: none
• 1990: Srečko Katanec (3)

Players banned from World Championships

• 2002: Nastja Čeh received the red card in the last group game against Paraguay . Since Slovenia was eliminated, this had no further effect for the tournament like the second yellow cards for Amir Karič , Željko Milinović and Miran Pavlin .
• 2010: Bojan Jokić received the second yellow card in the last group match, but this had no effect as Slovenia was eliminated.

Share of players playing abroad in the World Cup squad

Legionnaires always made up the majority of the players in the Slovenian squad, in the end there were only two players playing in Slovenia, but they were not used.

Year (games)	Number (countries)	Players (stakes)
2002 (3)	18 (4 in Belgium, 4 in Germany, 1 in England, 1 in Israel, 1 in Italy, 1 in Japan, 1 in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, 2 in Austria, 2 in Portugal, 1 in the Czech Republic)	Nastja Čeh (2), Mladen Dabanovič (1), Saša Gajser (1), Dejan Nemec (0); Spasoje Bulajič (2), Aleksander Knavs (2), Džoni Novak (3), Rajko Tavčar (1); Mladen Rudonja (3); Milan Osterc (3), Sebastjan Cimirotič (3); Željko Milinović (3); Milenko Ačimovič (3); Aleš Čeh (3), Zoran Pavlovič (0); Miran Pavlin (3), Zlatko Zahovič (1); Goran Sankovič (0)
2010 (3)	21 (2 in Belgium, 4 in Germany, 1 in England, 2 in France, 1 in Greece, 1 in Israel, 4 in Italy, 3 in the Netherlands, 1 in Poland, 1 in Portugal, 1 in Russia)	Zlatan Ljubijankič (3), Marko Šuler (3); Mišo Brečko (3), Zlatko Dedič (3), Matej Mavrič (0), Milivoje Novakovič (3); Robert Koren (3); Valter Birsa (3), Boštjan Cesar (3); Aleksander Radosavljevič (3); Andrej Komac (2); Jasmin Handanovič (0), Samir Handanovič (3), Bojan Jokić (3), Rene Krhin (0); Tim Matavž (1), Aleksander Šeliga (0), Dalibor Stevanović (0); Andraž Kirm (3); Nejc Pečnik (2); Branko Ilič (0)

Games

Slovenia has played 6 World Cup games so far, one of which has been won, four lost and one has ended in a draw.

Slovenia never played in the opening game and never played against the hosts, defending champions or eventual world champions.

Slovenia never met newcomers to the World Cup.

All World Cup games
No.	date	opponent	Result	occasion	venue	Remarks
1.	06/02/2002	Spain	1: 3	Preliminary round	Gwangju ( KOR )
2.	06/08/2002	South Africa	0: 1	Preliminary round	Daegu ( KOR )	First international match against South Africa
3.	06/12/2002	Paraguay	1: 3	Preliminary round	Jeju ( KOR )	First international match against Paraguay
4th	06/13/2010	Algeria	1-0	Preliminary round	Polokwane ( RSA )	First international match against Algeria
5.	06/18/2010	United States	2: 2	Preliminary round	Johannesburg ( RSA )	First international match against the United States
6th	06/23/2010	England	0: 1	Preliminary round	Port Elizabeth ( RSA )

Highest victories and defeats

The Slovenian team's only World Cup victory is also the highest victory against this country:

•  Algeria : Preliminary round 2010 1-0 (only win against Algeria)

The Slovenian team suffered their biggest defeats in World Cup tournaments against the following countries:

•  Paraguay : 2002 preliminary round 1: 3 (only game against Paraguay)
•  Spain : 2002 preliminary round 1: 3
•  South Africa : 2002 0-1 preliminary round (only game against South Africa)

particularities

With Jasmin Handanovič and Samir Handanovič , there were two cousins in the 2010 squad - both as goalkeepers.

See also

Slovenian national football team / European championships

Web links

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

References and footnotes

1. ^ Slovenian players in the Federal Republic of Germany (1974) and Italy (1990) with the Yugoslav team
2. ↑ 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)