They may be rank outsiders in their first European Championship finals appearance for 24 years, but Slovenia can call on one of the continent’s best goalkeepers and one of its most in-demand forwards…
How to follow Euro 2024 on The Athletic…
The manager
If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again. Whether that is Slovenia coach Matjaz Kek’s motto, it certainly applies as, in his second spell in charge of his homeland’s national team, he has got them to the Euros at the third attempt.
His first crack at the job — which began in 2007 and included their qualification for the 2010 World Cup — ended in 2011 following the failure to reach the following summer’s Euros. He returned in late 2018 and while he was unable to guide the team to Euro 2020, they won Nations League promotion to its second tier in 2021 and are now off to only their second European Championship, after their debut in the 2000 tournament.
That was the year Kek began his managerial career back home with Maribor — one that would take him to work in Saudi Arabia (Al Ittihad) and Croatia (Rijeka), intertwined with youth and senior roles in the Slovenia setup.
The former centre-back for clubs including Maribor, who earned one cap in 1992, is a wily 62-year-old veteran and he has used his experience to rejuvenate the Slovenia side, utilising a 4-4-2 to get the best out of the nation’s current crop of players.
Kek celebrates Slovenia’s qualification for Euro 2024 (Jurij Kodrun/Getty Images)
The household name in waiting
If you follow the German Bundesliga or are a fan of Manchester United, Newcastle United or Arsenal, you will already know the name Benjamin Sesko.
The 21-year-old RB Leipzig forward is set to once again be involved in plenty of transfer window speculation in the coming months, having been linked with a Premier League move for the previous two summers. Sesko has been touted as Slovenia’s next big hope for some time and his first major international tournament will offer him the chance to make a name for himself on a global level.
Tall and athletic, his breakthrough came at Red Bull Salzburg in Austria before his move to sister club Leipzig last summer. It wasn’t the smoothest transition initially, but Sesko, who is aerially dominant at 6ft 5in (195cm), pacy and likes to drift out to the right, hit his stride in recent weeks, finishing the season by scoring in Leipzig’s final seven Bundesliga matches for a total of 18 in 42 club appearances in all competitions.
The national team’s current record goalscorer, Zlatko Zahovic (35 between 1992 and 2004), publicly stated in 2022 that he expects Sesko to break his record — the striker currently has 11 from 28 caps. No pressure, son.
If you’re looking for a more obscure name, how about Adam Cerin of Greece’s Panathinaikos? The 24-year-old playmaker was pivotal to Slovenia’s qualification campaign, with only Bruno Fernandes of Portugal (37), Serbia’s Dusan Tadic (31), Xherdan Shaqiri of Switzerland (25) and Croatia’s Luka Modric (24) creating more chances for team-mates than his 23.
Strengths
Having one of the best goalkeepers of the past decade or so is a pretty good building block for any side. There are few better than Atletico Madrid’s Jan Oblak at shot-stopping and the Slovenia captain will need to be in top form to give his side a chance at advancing from a group also containing England, Denmark (both semi-finalists at Euro 2020) and Serbia.
But they are a side who are confident and in form, having beaten much-fancied Portugal 2-0 at home in March and the United States 1-0 away in January. Key to those recent success has been the side’s ability to score goals while retaining a compact and disciplined defensive structure in their 4-4-2. Only twice have they failed to score in games where Sesko was a key focal point of the attack.
Sesko works best when he has a partner and Andraz Sporar of Panathinaikos has been the perfect foil. Behind them is the creative spark of the latter’s club colleague Cerin.
In Oblak, Slovenia have one of Europe’s top goalkeepers (Vid Ponikvar/MB Media/Getty Images)
Weaknesses
Slovenia may have momentum, but there are no guarantees that will translate to tournament football.
Kek’s 4-4-2 worked well overall in qualification as they qualified as runners-up in their group, but they won one and lost two of the four matches they played against the other top teams in that section — first-placed Denmark and Finland. At 57th in the FIFA world rankings, Slovenia are comfortably the lowest-placed side in their group at the finals and they will need to pull off a shock result or two even to be one of the four third-placed teams to advance to the round of 16.
While we have talked up Sesko, relying on a 21-year-old playing in his first major tournament to be your primary goalscorer is a risk. It is a huge responsibility to place on a youngster.
Thing you didn’t know
This tournament will see the return of a now 36-year-old Josip Ilicic to the Slovenia squad after an absence of more than two years.
The former Atalanta forward has scored 16 goals in 79 games for his country but hasn’t played for them since November 2021 as he has struggled with mental health problems. He went home to play in the Slovenian league in October 2022 after his contract with Atalanta was terminated and he was in great form for Maribor last season, with eight goals and 11 assists in 31 league appearances.
Expectations back home
Slovenians will certainly not be getting carried away given they are in such a tough group, including many people’s tournament favourites England.
They are huge underdogs, but a strong qualifying campaign saw them win seven of their 10 matches — although they finished runners-up to Denmark on head-to-head record, following a 1-1 home draw last June and a 2-1 defeat in Copenhagen five months later.
The hope will be for a better showing than their first and only other appearance in the competition 24 years ago, when they failed to win a match (they drew with Yugoslavia and Norway and lost 2-1 to Spain) and were, as you’d imagine, eliminated after the group stage.
Slovenia’s preliminary squad
Goalkeepers: Jan Oblak (Atletico Madrid), Vid Belec (APOEL Nicosia), Igor Vekic (Vejle), Matevz Vidovsek (Olimpija Ljubljana).
Defenders: Petar Stojanovic (Sampdoria), Jaka Bijol (Udinese), Miha Blazic (Lech Poznan), Jure Balkovec (Alanyaspor), Zan Karnicnik (Celje), David Brekalo (Orlando City), Erik Janza (Gornik Zabrze), Vanja Drkusic (Sochi), Zan Zaletel (Viborg).
Midfielders: Timi Max Elsnik (Olimpija Ljubljana), Jasmin Kurtic (Sudtirol), Benjamin Verbic (Panathinaikos), Miha Zajc (Fenerbahce), Sandi Lovric (Udinese), Adam Cerin (Panathinaikos), Jon Gorenc Stankovic, Tomi Horvat (both Sturm Graz), Adrian Zeljkovic (Spartak Trnava), Nino Zugelj (Bodo/Glimt).
Forwards: Josip Ilicic (Maribor), Andraz Sporar (Panathinaikos), Benjamin Sesko (RB Leipzig), Luka Zahovic (Pognon Szczecin), Zan Celar (Lugano), Jan Mlakar (Pisa), Zan Vipotnik (Bordeaux).
(Top photo: Getty Images; design: Eamonn Dalton)
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