Slovenia ready to make history

Slovenia coach Bojan Prašnikar says his team are more than capable of reaching next summer’s UEFA EURO 2004™ finals after the 1-1 draw against Croatia in the first-leg of their play-off in Zagreb on Saturday.

Historic result
Croatia have never lost to Slovenia so coming out on top in the two-leg encounter – following Wednesday’s return in Ljubljana - would be a remarkable achievement. It is nevertheless one which Prašnikar believes his side can achieve given their courageous performance at the Maksimir stadium.

Win possible
The coach saw his players raise their hands triumphantly after the closely-contested match and hopes the result will infuse them with the confidence they need to produce another outstanding display. "I think we are capable of repeating this good result and even winning the next match," Prašnikar said. "We are really very satisfied with he scoreline. We played against a quality team. Croatia had some good chances but we excelled ourselves to keep them out."

Precious leveller
Milenko Acimovic, who provided the assist for Ermin Šiljak's equaliser after the in-form Dado Pršo had opened the scoring for the home team, explained that Slovenia were happy to hold on for a draw after battling to draw level. "The match is still not finished and we have another game to go but we are very satisfied," he said. "We were nervous but did well to equalise so quickly after the opener. We didn’t want to gamble and decided to do our best to defend the draw."

Courageous display
Midfield player Miran Pavlin added that the performance means his team is now worthy of more respect. "We showed we have the sort of heart that many of the more popular teams in Europe do not have – but we are not going to let this result go to our heads," he said. "It was a beautiful night in front of a great crowd and it is not often you get to play in front of so many people."

Baric tribute
Croatia coach Otto Baric paid tribute to the visitors, who refused to let their heads go down after the early goal. "We started well but after Slovenia equalised we were not good enough," said the coach. "The reason for that was that they held firm defensively. We were better in the end but we cannot be content as we did not make the most of our chances to score."

Tactical modification
Baric had made all three of his changes ten minutes into the second half, bringing on Giovani Rosso for Jerko Leko and Darijo Srna for Boris Zivkovic in an effort to bolster the midfield while Milan Rapaic replaced Ivica Olic up front. Despite the substitutions, Croatia were unable to produce enough clear-cut chances. "It made a difference but as I’ve said before Slovenia are a very good team," said Baric. "But I still think we can go through and am sure we will be able to score one or two goals in Slovenia."