He only expects one thing from the Slovenian team: “As I’ve already said in London; I’ll be disappointed if they don’t dare to play. That [to play] is the whole point.”

Katanec, the Slovenian head coach, sat down in the dugout after Friday’s afternoon practice and took the time to respond to questions from the press. “If we make 50 percent less mistakes than at Wembley, this will be a spectacle. I hope they won’t be afraid to play, even if we get five goals. This is the only way to make a new breakthrough in the way we play. These are the matches that leave an imprint. They have 90 minutes, I haven’t forbidden them anything. But I hope the spectators support the players, no matter what happens,” said Katanec.

“We worked well; it is okay for this time in the season. The English team is the undisputed favourite, but we’ll try to do the best we can. It is realistic to expect that England will have the ball in its possession longer since they’re a quality team, but we’ll try to use some things to our advantage. We’ll certainly have some opportunities; it will depend on individual players if they save these positions or not. The players have plenty of experience, ours isn’t a very young team. Whether we win or not, the last three matches of the qualification series will still be decisive. We can compare with the best on Sunday, and get to those three matches in a better position than our current is,” added the head coach.

M. R., MMC; translated by K. Z.