Slovenia v England background
Monday, June 1, 2015
Article summary
Slovenia can take comfort from a decent home record of late as they prepare to face UEFA EURO 2016 qualifying Group E leaders England, who have made a perfect start.
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Article body
Slovenia have not conceded in their last four competitive home fixtures as they take on an England side who are yet to drop a point in UEFA EURO 2016 qualifying Group E.
Previous meetings
• England recovered from a Jordan Henderson own goal to beat Slovenia 3-1 at Wembley in the teams' first Group E meeting back in November.
• The nations first met in a friendly game at Wembley on 5 September 2009, Fabio Capello's England running out 2-1 winners. Frank Lampard's penalty (31) and a deflected strike from Jermain Defoe (63) established their lead before Zlatan Ljubijankič (85) headed Matjaž Kek's side back into contention.
• Defoe (23) scored the only goal when the sides crossed paths in more significant circumstances – their final 2010 FIFA World Cup group stage game in Port Elizabeth. Victory took Capello's England to the knockout stage at the expense of Kek's Slovenia.
• The teams for that match on 23 June 2010 were:
Slovenia: Handanovič, Brečko, Šuler, Cesar, Jokić, Koren, Radosavljević, Birsa, Kirm (Matavž 79), Ljubijankič (Dedić 62), Novaković.
England: James, Johnson, Upson, Terry, A Cole, Gerrard, Lampard, Barry, Milner, Defoe (Heskey 85), Rooney (J Cole 72).
Form guide
• Slovenia have won their last four competitive home games without conceding.
• Slovenia's 6-0 success against San Marino in their last qualifier was their biggest home victory to date.
• England and Slovakia are the only sides who have 100% records at the midway point in UEFA EURO 2016 qualifying.
• England are unbeaten in 24 qualifying games (W17 D7) since a 1-0 World Cup qualifying loss to Ukraine on 10 October 2009. There have been 13 games (W10 D3) since their last EURO qualifying defeat – 3-2 at home to Croatia on 21 November 2007.
Trivia and links
• England's injured forward Danny Welbeck was the highest scorer at the halfway mark in the European Qualifiers with six goals from five games.
• In ten matches against Slovenia in UEFA age-group competitions, England's record is W8 D1 L1; most recently, England beat Slovenia 3-1 in a UEFA European Under-17 Championship qualifier in Chesterfield on 23 March 2015.
• The 11 meetings between English and Slovenian clubs in UEFA competition have been dominated by the Premier League teams: W7 D2 L2, though NK Maribor earned a creditable 1-1 UEFA Champions League group stage draw against Chelsea FC in the most recent of those encounters.