Friday, November 20, 2009

Slovenes celebrate after qualifying for World Cup finals

"The centre of Ljubljana was packed on Thursday as thousands of soccer fans gathered to greet the Slovenia team which beat Russia in a playoff to qualify for next year's World Cup finals.

Slovenia's 1-0 win over Russia on Wednesday in the country's second largest city Maribor, earned them a spot in South Africa on the away goals rule after a 2-2 aggregate draw.

'Ljubljana is proud to greet its champions,' mayor Zoran Jankovic told a crowd of more than 10,000 people and promised to build a new sports stadium within a year as the city's present one is too small and outdated for international matches.

This is the second time Slovenia, which has only two million citizens, has qualified for the World Cup. The country declared independence from the former Yugoslavia in 1991 and made its debut at World Cup finals in 2002."

Source: Reuters

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