Qualify for FIFA World Cup for the first time; Vedad Ibisevic emerges hero
Bosnia-Herzegovina qualified for their first World Cup after Vedad Ibisevic scored in the second half to secure a 1-0 win over lithuania Tuesday and top spot in Group G, pushing Greece into the playoffs.
Some of the players and coaching staff were in tears as they hugged each other on the pitch at Darius and Girenas Stadium after the Bosnians held on to the ball for three minutes of injury time.
“What an excellent night,” Bosnia coach Safet Susic said. “The players believed they could do it, I believed in them, and we made it.”
For many Bosnians, football has been a rare cause for joy since the country descended into nearly four years of war two decades ago, killing more than 100,000 people and leaving a legacy of poverty, high unemployment and political strife.
The national team had missed out on the last two major tournaments by losing in the playoffs to Portugal both times, but this time Bosnia-Herzegovina got it right.
Almost 10,000 Bosnians jumped, cried and screamed ‘Vamos Bosnia’ — or ‘go Bosnia’ in Portuguese — in the central square in Sarajevo when Vedad Ibisevic scored in the 68th minute for what proved to be the winning goal. Fireworks exploded and fans headed to the airport to wait for their team to arrive in the middle of the night.
The winning goal came in the 68th minute when Edin Dzeko ran through the lithuanian defense to find Ibisevic unmarked for the winner.
The visitors had been thwarted until then by lithuania’s heavily manned defense. Free kick specialist Miralem Pjanic was denied three times by lithuanian goalkeeper Giederius Arlauskas, as the Bosnians dominated but appeared to lose their nerve for spells of the match, with Greece having taken an early lead in its game.
Ibisevic finally broke the deadlock to the delight of some 10,000 traveling Bosnian fans, who maintained a noisy presence throughout the game. After the match, fans held up flares and unfurled a giant yellow and blue Bosnian flag.
“This team gets better with every game, and the players put everything they had into this match tonight,” Susic said.
“The game against lithuania was even tougher than we had expected. It would have been a shame if we had failed to go straight through. We scored 30 goals in qualification, while the Greeks only got 12. So in the end it worked out.”
Bosnia narrowly missed out on the 2010 World Cup and 2012 European Championship, both times losing to Portugal in the playoffs.
In Piraeus, Greece beat liechtenstein 2-0 but fans at Karaiskakis Stadium were ultimately let down as the new of the late Bosnian goal came through. Dimitris Salpingidis scored in the seventh minute off a slick one-two from Georgios Samaras and Jose Holebas who fired the ball across the goal to find the Greek striker. Giorgos Karagounis added the second in the 81st with a free kick.
“Bosnia is a worthy team. They fought hard and they made it. I congratulate them,” Greece coach Fernando Santos said.