SLOVENIA

Slovenia's World Cup record: 2002 1st rd.

How Slovenia qualified for World Cup 2010: European play-off winners.

The Coach: Matjaž Kek (Slovenian, 48). Appointed: January 2007. WC experience: Player: None. Coach: None.

Kek has worked his way up the Slovenian ladder, coaching the country’s Under-15 and Under-16 teams before progressing to the senior side.

The Country: The only surprise of the play-offs came in Slovenia with Kek admitting that his country had "realised a dream" by winning against Russia to a place at the World Cup finals after Milivoje Novakovic's five goals saved them second place in their group.

Zlatko Dedic scored the game's only goal to put Slovenia through on away goals at the expense of Guus Hiddink's side, who had two men sent off in a tragic and bad-tempered match. But Kek was without doubt that his side played better on the night and deserved to go through.

He said: "It was a historic match for us. I want to thank every one of my players. The whole country was behind us and we could feel their support. Our victory was deserved. It is a huge honour to be among the best teams in the world. Slovenia has realised a dream.”

A dream, indeed, when one thinks that they played their first match only in 1992 after the split of Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1991. Before that, Slovenian players played for the Yugoslavia national football team.

Slovenia were shock qualifiers for Euro 2000, when they won against Ukraine in a playoff. They turned some heads during the tournament, drawing with Yugoslavia and Norway, and only defeating to Spain 2–1. Slovenia achieved another major achievement two years later, qualifying for the 2002 World Cup, this time winning against Romania in a playoff.

They were not defeated a match in their complete qualifying matches with six wins and six draws. However, they did not do as good in the finals, as they went home without point. Despite defeating to qualify for the 2006 World Cup, they were the only team to win against Italy on their way to coming first with a shock 1–0 win on home turf.