Slovenia set sights on quarter-finals

The highlight of Slovenia's footballing year will be their appearance at the FIFA World Cup in South Africa, but next week the attention will switch to Hungary and the UEFA European Futsal Championship.

Aims
Slovenia will be competing in the showpiece for only the second time and have a tough task in Group C against Serbia and former champions Russia, who Andrej Dobovičnik's side meet first in Budapest on Wednesday. However, Dobovičnik – in charge since late 2005 – is aiming for a distinct improvement on Slovenia's previous finals appearance, when they lost all three games seven years ago in Italy.

Quarter-final aim
"We have set ourselves ambitious goals," Dobovičnik said. "We want to reach the quarter-finals. It will be difficult. Personally, I will not be disappointed if we fail, but I want us to show that we trained hard. Everything will depend on ourselves. We will also need luck. We will have to have two good matches."

Serbia hope
As Russia have only once failed to make the last four – and beat Slovenia 2-0 in qualifying – and Serbia have experience from the finals in 2007, getting past the group will not be easy. "Russia are improving," Dobovičnik said. "They are working hard to get back on top. They have raised the level of quality in their league. I know them well, because we played against them in qualification and I also watched some tapes of their matches. We will not surrender. But, speaking honestly, our chances are greater against Serbia."

Association's faith
Dobovičnik has injury concerns over Rajko Uršič, Igor Osredkar and Gasper Vrhovec, but the 42-year-old former international is determined to repay the faith shown by the Football Association of Slovenia, and they ended their friendly programme on Thursday with a 5-1 defeat of 2007 qualifiers Romania. "We have to fight and show that the FA did not invest money for nothing," he said.