Preparing For the World Cup: Slovenia Scouting Report 4
England was happy with their World Cup draw largely due to being handed Slovenia from pot four which contained the European teams. They could have got harder opposition from pot two – Mexico perhaps – and pot three – Ivory Coast – but avoiding France, Portugal and various other tough European opponents was a major bonus.
Complacency is not known to be one of Fabio Capello’s traits and the Italian will not be fooled into taking Slovenia lightly. Matjaz Kek’s outfit beat Poland and Czech Republic to second place in qualification group three, narrowly missing out on automatic progression behind Slovakia, who they beat home and away. Only Netherlands conceded fewer goals than Slovenia in the UEFA region.
Russia were successfully negotiated in a dramatic play-off that saw Slovenia recover from an early two-goal deficit in Moscow, proving the durability and determination exhibited in the group stage can be drawn upon in big games. The best betting site odds might suggest Solvenia are outsiders, but they could manage to get through to the second round. Read the rest of this entry →