Kek Expects Tough Qualifiers for Euro 2012
Head coach of the Slovenian national football team Matjaz Kek expects tough opposition in the qualifying Group C for the UEFA Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine. Slovenia will open the qualifying campaign in Maribor on 3 September against Northern Ireland.
Kek has however told the STA in an interview that Slovenia should not be afraid of any team from its group, which also features Italy, Serbia, Estonia and the Faroe Islands.
The winner of each of the nine qualifying groups and best runner-up among all groups will qualify directly, while the remaining group runners-up will advance to the play-offs.
Kek believes that the first two games - the second match with Serbia in Belgrade coming four days after Northern Ireland - will be crucial. He is optimistic despite some injury concerns in the team and says he will not resort to any calculations.
"I'm very bad at maths. I don't care about these things. Our goal is to win every game. This is completely normal. It would be perfect to open the qualifiers with a positive result, but we are aware how strong our opponents are."
According to Kek, Slovenia is now in a different position following the appearance at the World Cup in South Africa. "Expectations are high, optimism is all over the place. Now we have to justify this," he said, adding that the fact that Slovenia ranks 20th in the FIFA rankings and Northern Ireland is 50th does not guarantee success.
The coach is happy that captain Robert Koren has secured a two-year contract in England as he "can be calm now as far as psychological preparations are concerned". He also praised other players for training on their own and investing in themselves instead of sitting at home.
The core of the team for the next cycle has already been formed, but Kek said he would let two to three young prospects participate in the qualifiers to enable them to make an transition to the next level.
"We have managed to bring together a good mixture of older players aged around 30 and mature players aged 24, 25. The young ones are following them. I'm glad that the youngsters are playing and gaining the necessary experience in international matches."
Kek however does not rely on individual quality as he believes Slovenia has to behave as a well-organised unit. "But I'm glad that young players force you to take them into consideration."
He believes that Italy and Serbia are the favourites to win the group, as Italy will be motivated after their failure at the World Cup, while Serbia has far superior individual quality to Slovenia.
Kek also warned that Estonia and the Faroe Islands must not be underestimated, especially on their turf. "These are teams which have sprung surprises in the past. This group is certainly harder than our qualifying group for the World Cup", he added in a reference to the group that featured the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland among others.
According to him, it will also be much harder to qualify for the Euro than for the World Cup because nobody had counted on Slovenia before, whereas now "everybody will be after us". "It is always harder to repeat success."
Text: STA
Foto: TAKA
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