On This World Cup Day - 23 June
Wednesday, 23 June, 2010
England play Slovenia for only the second time in history today.
England play Slovenia in Port Elizabeth in their third and final Group C fixture this afternoon. The two countries have only met once before on the football field and that was as recently as last autumn.
Slovenia played their first international in 1992, a year after the split of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. A play-off win against Romania took them through to the 2002 World Cup in the Far East, where they were placed in Group B with Spain, Paraguay and South Africa.
They lost all three games.
Slovenia played England in a Wembley friendly on 5 September and a 67,000 crowd saw the home side gain a 2-1 victory.
The visitors made an enthusiastic start to the match and came close to scoring after seven minutes, Novakovic rounding Robert Green before curling a shot just over the bar.
England had two chances in the 22nd minute, Wayne Rooney’s shot being deflected over and John Terry’s header thumping against the bar, but there was a home goal to cheer nine minutes after that. Cesar tangled with Rooney to concede a penalty and Frank Lampard slammed the ball past Handanovic from the spot.
Substitute Jermain Defoe made it 2-0 on 63 minutes and Ljubijankic pulled a goal back near the end.
There's a lot more at stake in today's fixture, however, as England need a victory to be sure of going through to the World Cup's last 16, while Slovenia only need a draw to progress.
