Bosnia-Herzegovina qualified for its first World Cup after Vedad Ibisevic scored in the second half to secure a 1-0 win over Lithuania Tuesday and top spot in Group G, pushing Greece into the playoffs.
Some of the players and coaching staff were in tears as they hugged each other on the pitch at Darius and Girenas Stadium after the Bosnians held on to the ball for three minutes of injury time.
The winning goal came in the 68th minute when Edin Dzeko ran through the Lithuanian defense to find Ibisevic unmarked for the winner.
The visitors had been thwarted until then by Lithuania's heavily manned defense. Free kick specialist Miralem Pjanic was denied three times by Lithuanian goalkeeper Giederius Arlauskas, as the Bosnians dominated but appeared to lose their nerve for spells of the match, with Greece having taken an early lead in its game.
Ibisevic finally broke the deadlock to the delight of some 10,000 traveling Bosnian fans, who maintained a noisy presence throughout the game.
Bosnia narrowly missed out on the 2010 World Cup and 2012 European Championship, both times losing to Portugal in the playoffs.
In Piraeus, Greece beat Liechtenstein 2-0 but it wasn't enough to scrape through. Dimitris Salpingidis scored in the seventh minute and captain Giorgos Karagounis added the second in the 81st with a free kick.
''Bosnia is a worthy team. They fought hard and they made it. I congratulate them,'' Greece coach Fernando Santos said.
