“Celebrations in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Azzurri in tears, ‘Dragons’ go to the World Cup”, reads the big headline of the Slovenian Diary.
“The Italians have not been in the elite class of national teams for several years, but their relegation against Bosnia and Herzegovina still represents another huge blow for them, after they failed to qualify for the last three World Cups”, writes Dnevnik, who reminds that this is the second time that BiH will participate in the World Cup and that this success “raised the whole country”.
Portal Evening reports that Bosnians and Herzegovinans celebrated this historic triumph in Maribor and other Slavic places.
“Bosnian football euphoria also affected Maribor. Trumpets, singing, whistling, setting off firecrackers, waving Bosnian flags and general joy could be heard from the streets of Maribor after the Bosnians defeated Italy in a penalty shootout in Zenica and qualified for the World Cup,” says Večer.
Slovak Delo writes that the match started very well for the Italians, but things got complicated for them with Alessandro Bastoni’s red card in the 41st minute.
“The home team used their numerical advantage in the last moments of the regular part of the game, when Haris Tabaković equalized in the 79th minute. There was no decision in the extra time, so it went to penalties, where the footballers of BiH were more successful and thus left the Italians without a place in the World Cup,” Dela points out.
Radiotelevision (RTV) Slovenia mentions that this defeat is a kind of “apocalypse” for the Italian national football team, while with the historic triumph “the stadium in Zenica exploded with the celebration of BiH fans”.
At the end, RTV Slovenia writes about the big celebration on the streets of Sarajevo, where coach Sergej Barbarez and team captain Edin Džeko were greeted with the biggest ovations.
(Vijesti.ba / FENA)
