Slovenia is the clear underdog in its group, will rely on star Oblak and a miracle

For only the second time in its history, Slovenia will compete at the European Championships. A team with only one real star of world football is the clear outsider in Group C. But they are in decent shape.

Oblak team. So most people represent Slovakia, where you really won’t find many other stars. Atlético Madrid’s goalkeeper will be relied on again. And even though he hasn’t had the best season at the club, he is still one of the world’s elite goalkeepers.

The Slovenia captain has already racked up 64 national team starts and, barring injury, will add at least 3 more starts at the championship. Whether there will be more remains to be seen.

But Slovenia is in pretty solid form. It hasn’t lost 6 games in a row, beating for example USA or Portugal with star Cristian Ronaldo.

The defence should be led by Jaka Bijol, the 25-year-old stopper from Udinese in Italy. At left-back we will see Erik Janza, who briefly played for Viktoria Plzeň. In 2017, he played in three Czech league games.

The second biggest name in the Slovenian national team is Josip Iljic. The experienced cannonballer spent many years in Serie A, playing for Palermo, Fiorentina and Atalanta, where he had the best period of his career. For the last two seasons he has been playing back home in Maribor, where he started his career in big-time football.

The third “star” is Benjamin Šeško. The youngest of all of them is a big talent for Leipzig, who is being watched by teams from all over Europe. The 21-year-old striker is worth €40 million according to Transfermarkt, and he shot to qualification with five goals and two assists. He has netted 14 goals in the Bundesliga.

Another well-known name after that is Andraž Šporár, who used to play for Slovan Bratislava, from which he left for Sporting Lisbon. Now he plays for Panathinaikos in Greece.

The ideal line-up

Oblak
Karničnik – Brekalo – Bijol – Janža
Horvat – Gnezda Cerin – Elšnik
Šporar – Šeško – Iličič

Slovenia will be the clear outsider in Group C, where they will face England, Denmark and Serbia. Virtually everyone pegs it for last place, but Oblak and co. certainly won’t want to accept that. Moreover, they have already met Denmark in qualifying and gained a valuable point. However, the strength of the group will probably be beyond the strength of the Slovenians.

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