SLOVENIA IS ON THE THRESHOLD OF EURO 2024!! Kek’s squad one point away from Belfast tournament in Germany after victory in Belfast
Foto: Vid Ponikvar / Sportida
The dream we have been dreaming for over a decade is slowly coming true! Slovenia is also in Belfast proved that they have matured as a team and with another very good, solid and above all extremely disciplined performance, they achieved their sixth victory in their eighth appearance in the qualifiers for the
Euro 2024
! Or to put it another way: Slovenia is on the threshold of the tournament in Germany! The squad, led by Matjaž Kek, needs just one more point in their last two games (they will play Denmark away in November and then Kazakhstan at home)! But with the added bonus that a point from the Denmark game will not be enough, but a point from the Kazakhstan game will… But if we win the next match in Denmark, the doubts would be over anyway…
As Denmark won 2-1 away in San Marino (the little boy from the Apennine Peninsula scored his first goal of the qualifiers to equalise midway through the second half), Slovenia remains top of Group H thanks to a better goal difference.
Slovenia celebrated a minimal victory in Belfast, which was secured in the 5th round. minutes. Adam Gnezda Cerin was the hero with a masterful goal, but after that the visitors had no trouble keeping the lowly hosts away from their goal and took the next giant step towards Euro 2024 with relative ease.
The match in Belfast started in a dream-like way for Slovenia. After a few minutes, the hosts made a rather stupid (and – hand on heart – anything but obvious) foul on Benjamin Šešek just a step or two from the edge of the penalty area. The referee didn’t award it at first, but changed his mind about 10 seconds later and Slovenia had a free kick from 17 metres.
He set the ball Adam Gnezda Cerinand then hit it so well that it could hardly have been better. He sent the ball past the live wall and, with the help of the post, put it behind the back of a helpless Bailey Peacock-Farrell. What a masterpiece! It was Slovenia’s first ever away goal in Belfast. It could hardly have come at a better time…
🚨🚨| GOAL: Slovenia leads with a goal from Adam Cerin
Northern Ireland 0-1 Slovenia.
– TTS. (@TransferSector) October 17, 2023
After the goal, the islanders went for the equaliser and were quite dangerous in the Slovenian half on several occasions. But far from that, Slovenian captain Jan Oblak, who played his 60th game in the World Cup. national team match, shiver… After half an hour of play, the Northern Irish net was hit a second time, with Benjamin Šeško kicking the ball into the net after a pass from Jan Mlakar and an unbelievable schoolboy mistake by Eoin Toal (the round leather got between his legs). Unfortunately, the goal was disallowed, the referee watched the replay and overturned it for offside.
Slovenia “killed the rhythm” with a clever game until the end of the first half and calmed the hosts down enough to go into the break with a one-goal advantage.
The story continued in the second half, with Slovenia’s task becoming a little easier in the 58th. In the final minute, the hosts were down to ten men. Shea Charles stopped Andraz Šporar with a flagrant foul, received a second yellow card and had to take an early shower. The hosts were getting more and more nervous, which was not surprising given how well Slovenia was “killing” the game.
After almost 70 minutes of toothless play, Northern Ireland had their first real chance through Isaac Price and Conor Washington, who combined nicely on the right side of the Slovenian half. After a double pass, George Saville found himself alone in front of Oblak, but he was clearly scared of Slovenia’ s captain, because he hit the ball with real fear. The weak shot could have been the work of the Slovenian captain. Slovenia came back moments later with a chance for Jan Mlakar, who received a great cross from Petar Stojanovic, but the Italian Pisa striker hit the ball badly and a promising chance sailed over the bar.
Jan Oblak was again in the 82nd place. Saville was again too isolated in the Slovenian penalty area, but he kicked the ball into the well positioned Škofjeloćan once more. The last minutes of the match were a bit more tense, with Northern Ireland trying to equalise and at times it was hot in front of the Slovenian goal. But Jan Oblak kept the net intact and Slovenia won! A great victory, one of the most important on the way to the first major competition in 13 years! Slovenia is now really close. Very, very close.
Slovenia now has just one last step to take!
This text was automatically translated using AI.
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