Slovenia made the most of a favourable draw in the qualifiers for Germany to reach their second European Championship, 24 years after their debut appearance at the tournament; Matjaz Kek says his side will not be making up the numbers in England's group.
Matjaz Kek won just one cap for Slovenia as a player but during two spells as manager of the national team the former Maribor defender is having a far more significant presence. Victory over Algeria at the World Cup is their only success at a major tournament and came under Kek, who embarked on his second stint in and has engineered the latest qualification.
Participation in Germany will mark only the fourth major international tournament for the former Yugoslav republic, who have been playing as an independent entity since As well as Euro , where they drew two games and lost the other in the group phase, Slovenia also qualified for the World Cup in and but have yet to go beyond the group stage.
This time round they will be hoping to make more of an impact in Group C where they meet qualifying rivals Denmark first in Stuttgart on June 16 and then Serbia and Euro runners-up England. It makes you think that we won't have to wait another 24 years or even 12 to 13 years to qualify for our next big competition.
We are not going there as tourists. We are going there to compete. I want the guys to be competitive and they will take that attitude.
