Slovenia boosted its confidence ahead of the World Cup with a 4-1
victory over Qatar in a friendly on Wednesday.
Slovenia was aggressive from the start, with Milivoje
Novakovic opening the scoring in the 13th minute and Bostjan Cesar
adding a second in the 30th after collecting a pass from Andraz
Kirm, who then made it 3-0 just four minutes later.
Brazilian-born player Fabio Montesin pulled a goal back for
Qatar just before halftime but Bojan Jokic ended any hopes of a
Qatar comeback with Slovenia's fourth in the 67th minute.
Slovenia will face England, the United States and Algeria in
Group C at the World Cup in South Africa.
Slovenia's coach Matjaz Kek brought the same side that beat
Russia in November to make it through to the World Cup and only
made changes in the last 20 minutes of the game.
Slovenia played its only previous World Cup appearance in
2002 in South Korea and Japan, but lost all of its three matches.
In qualifying for this year's World Cup, however, it lost only two
of its 12 matches.
Lineups:
Slovenia: Samir Handanovic (Aleksander Seliga, 70th), Miso
Brecko (Branko Ilic, 65th), Marko Suler, Bostjan Cesar (Dejan
Kelhar, 78th), Robert Koren, Valter Birsa (Mirnes Sisic, 65th),
Milivoje Novakovic, Bojan Jokic, Zlatko Dedic (Zlatan Ljubijankic,
56th), Andraz Kirm, Aleksander Radosavljevic (Rene Krhin, 65th).
Qatar: Qasem Burhan (Saad Al Sheeb, 81st), Ibrahim Al Ghanim,
Mohamed Kasoula, Khalid Al Zakiba, Mohammed Abdulraab Alyazidi,
Fabio Montesin (Mohammed Mohamady, 68th), Magid Hassan, Khalfan Al
Khalfan (Musa Jama, 46th), Ahmed Ali Albinali, Ali Yahya (Hamid
Asmael Khaleefa, 68th), Andres Quintana.
