Slovenia at the UEFA European Championship
Overview of Slovenia at the UEFA European Championship
The Slovenia national football team have appeared at the UEFA European Championship once, in 2000, with an upcoming second appearance in 2024.
During the 2000 qualifiers, Slovenia finished second in their group, behind Norway but ahead of Greece, Latvia, Albania and Georgia. In the play-offs, they defeated Ukraine 3–2 on aggregate to qualify for their first major tournament. At the finals, held in Belgium and the Netherlands, Slovenia were drawn into Group C together with Spain, Yugoslavia and Norway. In their inaugural match, Slovenia were leading 3–0 against Yugoslavia, but the match ended in a 3–3 draw. In the second match, Slovenia narrowly lost to Spain. Their last game against Norway ended in a goalless draw, leaving Slovenia bottom of their group with two points. Zlatko Zahovič was one of the country's key players, scoring three of the team's four goals in the tournament.
Slovenia would not qualify for the tournament again for another 24 years, until finally doing so in 2024; during the qualifiers, they finished second in their group, behind Denmark but ahead of Finland, Kazakhstan, Northern Ireland and San Marino.[1]
Overall record
| UEFA European Championship record | Qualification record | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Round | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | Squad | Pos. | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | |
| 1960 to 1992 | Part of  Yugoslavia | Part of Yugoslavia | ||||||||||||||
 1996 | Did not qualify | 5th | 10 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 13 | 13 | ||||||||
  2000 | Group stage | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 5 | Squad | 2nd (PO) | 12 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 15 | 16 | |
 2004 | Did not qualify | 2nd (PO) | 10 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 16 | 14 | ||||||||
  2008 | 6th | 12 | 3 | 2 | 7 | 9 | 16 | |||||||||
  2012 | 4th | 10 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 11 | 7 | |||||||||
 2016 | 3rd (PO) | 12 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 19 | 14 | |||||||||
 2020 | 4th | 10 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 16 | 11 | |||||||||
 2024 | Qualified | 2nd | 10 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 20 | 9 | ||||||||
  2028 | To be determined | To be determined | ||||||||||||||
  2032 | ||||||||||||||||
| Total | Group stage | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 5 | — | 2/8 | 86 | 36 | 17 | 33 | 119 | 100 | |
Euro 2000
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Slovenia squad – UEFA Euro 2000
Group stage
In their first major tournament match, Slovenia stunned FR Yugoslavia and took a 3–0 lead after one hour of play, with Zlatko Zahovič scoring twice and Miran Pavlin once. After Siniša Mihajlović's red card, it seemed that the team would win the first match, but then, despite being down to ten players, Yugoslavia made a comeback as they scored three goals in the span of six minutes.[2] In the second game, Spain took the 1–0 lead quickly as Raúl scored in the fourth minute. Slovenia equalised after one hour of play as Zahovič scored his third goal of the tournament. Only one minute later, Spain again took the lead as Joseba Etxeberria scored a game-winning goal. About 10,000 Slovenian fans gathered at the Amsterdam Arena, which is still the record for the number of Slovenian spectators at a football match outside of Slovenia.[3] In the last round of the group stage, Slovenia played against Norway and still had a chance to advance to the quarter-finals. However, the match ended in a goalless draw and Slovenia won its second point of the tournament, but was still eliminated.
| Pos | Team
| Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Spain | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 5 | +1 | 6 | Advance to knockout stage |
| 2 |  FR Yugoslavia | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 4[a] | |
| 3 |  Norway | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4[a] | |
| 4 |  Slovenia | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 5 | −1 | 2 |
- ^ a b Head-to-head result: Norway 0–1 FR Yugoslavia.
| FR Yugoslavia | 3–3 | Slovenia |
|---|---|---|
| Report |
| Slovenia | 1–2 | Spain |
|---|---|---|
| Report |
|
Euro 2024
Group stage
| Pos | Team
| Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Slovenia | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Advance to knockout stage |
| 2 |  Denmark | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 3 |  Serbia | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Possible knockout stage based on ranking |
| 4 | England | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
First match(es) will be played: 16 June 2024. Source: UEFA
Player records
Top goalscorers
| Rank | Player | Goals | Years (goals) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Zlatko Zahovič | 3 | 2000 (3) |
| 2 | Miran Pavlin | 1 | 2000 (1) |
See also
References
- ^ "Slovenija po 24 letih znova na evropskem prvenstvu!" (in Slovenian). RTV Slovenija. 20 November 2023. Retrieved 21 November 2023.
- ^ Plestenjak, Rok (29 January 2017). "Najbolj infarktna tekma v zgodovini Slovenije" (in Slovenian). Siol. Retrieved 22 November 2023.
- ^ Golob, Aleš (18 June 2020). "Video: 20 let od nepozabnega rajanja slovenskih navijačev v Amsterdamu" (in Slovenian). RTV Slovenija. Retrieved 21 June 2021.
