Slick Slovenia spell end for Beenhakker

Slovenia boosted their FIFA World Cup ambitions and all but ended those of fancied Poland with a victory that answered coach Matjaž Kek's call to arms in emphatic fashion. A lack of answers from his own side saw Leo Beenhakker sacked.

Early strike
Kek had called the game make or break for his charges and, as the hosts fizzed the ball around right from the kick off, they played like it. They were ahead inside 13 minutes when Zlatko Dedič – a goalscorer in the 1-1 draw when these sides met in October – fired in following good work from Mišo Brečko. Dedič's strike did little to quell Slovenia's attacking ardour and the 24-year-old turned provider late on in the half as he and Andraz Kirm combined to tee up Novakovič for the simplest of finishes.

Attacking ardour
And still the hosts came in Maribor, Valter Birsa capping a fine win soon after the hour with his first goal in 28 international appearances after another Kirm assist. It leaves Poland needing an unlikely sequence of results to even finish runners-up in Group 3 and they will do so under a new coach after Polish Football Association president Grzegorz Lato announced the end of Beenhakker's rein. "It was Leo Beenhakker's last match as Poland coach," he said. "We were terrible against Slovenia and something must change. We are now looking for new coach, though we'll perhaps use a caretaker in our remaining qualifiers against the Czech Republic and Slovakia."