Bosnia and Herzegovina national football team

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Bosnia and Herzegovina national football team

Nickname(s)	Plavo-žuti (blue-yellow), žuto-plavi (yellow-blue), Golden Lillies, Lions
Association	Football Association of B&H
Confederation	UEFA (Europe)
Head coach	Miroslav Blažević
Captain	Emir Spahić
Most caps	Elvir Bolić (55)
Top scorer	Elvir Bolić (24)
Home stadium	Bilino Polje, Zenica Asim Ferhatović Hase, Sarajevo
FIFA code	BIH
FIFA ranking	67
Highest FIFA ranking	25 (August 2007)
Lowest FIFA ranking	173 (September 1996)
Elo ranking	75
Highest Elo ranking	53 (February 28, 2001 May 28, 2006 May 31, 2006 August 16, 2006)
Lowest Elo ranking	87 (October 5, 1999)
Home colours Away colours Third colours
First international
Iran 1 - 3 Bosnia and Herzegovina (Tehran, Iran; June 6, 1993)
Biggest win
Bosnia and Herzegovina 7 - 0 Estonia  (Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina; September 10, 2008)
Biggest defeat
Argentina 5 - 0 Bosnia and Herzegovina (La Plata, Argentina; May 14, 1998)

The Bosnia and Herzegovina national football team is the national football team of Bosnia and Herzegovina and is controlled by the Football Association of Bosnia and Herzegovina. They played their first match in 1995 after the split of Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Before that, Bosnian-Herzegovinian players played for the Yugoslavia national football team.

Contents 1 Previous qualifying campaigns 2 Euro 2008 qualifiers 3 World Cup 2010 Qualifiers 4 World Cup record 5 European Championship record 6 Previous managers 7 Notable players 8 Current squad 9 FIFA World Cup qualification 10 See also 11 External links

[edit] Previous qualifying campaigns

The team has never qualified for a major tournament, but in the qualifying campaign for Euro 2004, only one goal in the last game against Denmark separated them from the finals in Portugal.

In the World Cup 2006 qualifying round, the Bosnians played surprisingly well when matched against teams like Spain (drawing both times), Belgium (one win, one loss), and Serbia and Montenegro (one draw, one loss).

Playing against the Serbian team inspires much national pride, as is common with any match that features two former Yugoslav republics. Against Serbia and Montenegro, the Bosnian team drew at home but lost the second leg in Belgrade, 1-0. Both matches had extra precautions being taken by officials, to prevent nationalistic rioting. UEFA fined both football federations when Serb nationalists attacked and injured several Bosnian fans.

Bosnia finished as runners-up to a Yugoslavian Premier League XI in the 2001 Millennium Super Cup in India.

Bosnia's best player and top scorer of all times is Elvir Bolic. He scored 24 goals in 55 caps for his country.

[edit] Euro 2008 qualifiers

After the World Cup 2006 qualifying round, much was expected of the Bosnian squad for the 2008 UEFA European Football Championship qualifying. Bosnia and Herzegovina opened their race for the tournament with a 5-2 victory over Malta playing away. However, major disappointing results followed with losses to Hungary and Greece at home soil, and an unexpected draw with Moldova in Chisinau. With nearly no hopes left for the squad, major changes took place. Coach Fuad Muzurović replaced Blaž Slišković and following the protest of 13 different players against the Football Association of Bosnia and Herzegovina by not attending national games, Muzurović had to rebuild the national team from scratch.

A team was successfully put together but little was expected of the squad since they did not have enough time to go under proper training against the next qualifying match against the solid Norwegians which was awaiting of picking up 3 points as being the home side. However, with a stunning upset the Bosnians took advantage of all chances during the game and came to victory with a 2-1 win, bringing hopes of qualifying back to life.

After the game against Norway, the Bosnian team had two great successes with an astounding victory against Turkey and a marginal victory against Malta. After these two games, the Bosnian squad unfortunately entered their second success depression for the qualifiers which cost them the loss of qualification. A defeat by Hungary and a horrible bitter defeat by Moldova at home soil dramatically changed the morale of both the team and the fans. The Bosnians then suffered two more defeats against Greece and Norway officially dropping them out of qualifications and an extra final conclusive defeat by Turkey marking the end of their Euro 2008 dream.

Currently, Bosnia and Herzegovina are the 67th best football nation in the FIFA World Rankings after a major sink from their record high, 25th place, past August.

[edit] World Cup 2010 Qualifiers

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