Tuesday, October 15th, 2013: The day in which millions across Bosnia and Herzegovina and other lands will hope to celebrate their national team qualifying for the World Cup for the first time ever. It's been a long time coming for a country that was torn apart by a vicious war fueled by political and ethnic conflicts. In their way stand Lithuania, a country mostly known for it's basketball team. Their football team have failed to qualify for every tournament as well and have rarely even been in contention to qualify. It will be the fouth meaning between the two sides, two wins and a draw for Bosnia against the Lithuanian National Team. The last time the sides played in Vilnius, it was a narrow 1-0 victory for Bosnia as Elvir Bolic found the back of the net given Blaz Sliskovic's men three points in hopes of beating Spain to second place in the group for the 2006 World Cup qualification. Almost a year ago, Bosnia beat Lithuania 3-0 at Bilino Polje as Vedad Ibisevic, Edin Dzeko and Miralem Pjanic all found the back of the net in the first half.
As mentioned earlier, Bosnia and Herzegovina was plagued by war. In the early 1990s, several countries that were part of Yugoslavia had declared their independence and Bosnia was one of them. Bosnia is sandwiched between Croatia and Serbia, two countries that have a violent history as well. The declaration of independence was the cause for the outbreak of the war, but it quickly turned into an ethnic issue. Serbia had begun to institute the policy of ethnic cleansing and began to slaughter and massacre thousands of Bosniaks for being Muslim. The most known example of ethnic cleansing is Srebrenica, a town near the border of Serbia and the Drina River. In July 1995, Serb forces rolled into the "UN Safe Zone" centered in Srebrenica and over a period of a few days, the massacre began as over 8,000 (and still counting) were executed. The world looked on and witnessed the worst genocide in Europe since the Holocaust (WW2). The war eventually came to an end in November of the same year as the Dayton Peace Agreement was signed and effectively ended it. However, many problems still exist today between the countries as violence outbreaks have occured from time-to-time since the war's end. All that pain suffered during the war for Bosnians worldwide could be overshadowed on Tuesday as Bosnia hope to be the first ex-Yugo country to qualify for the World Cup in Brazil.
Safet Susic's men come into the match after a 4-1 win over Liechtenstein on Friday in Zenica, the win was routine and the performance was dominant. The fans and players were hoping that Slovakia did them a favor and beat Greece as well, but Slovakia couldn't even do themselves a favor as Jan Mucha humiliated himself by missing the backpass from Skrtel and it resulted in an own goal. However, Bosnia will only have to rely on themselves on Tuesday - a win and they're in. A loss would be devastating if Greece wins, but a Greece loss would still see the Bosnians qualify. A Bosnia draw and a Greece draw will also see the Bosnians qualify. So basically, Bosnia just need to match what Greece do to qualify. Coming into the match, Bosnia are one of the top scoring teams in all of the qualifications. They have one of the world's top scorers in Edin Dzeko and also one of the best defenses in the world as well. Safet Susic has organized his men brilliantly this entire campaign as they've done everything right for the most part. Bosnia have won six of their last eight and three of their last five.
I said this in the past preview for Bosnia (v Liechtenstein) about Bosnia's struggles in qualifying for major tournaments: Bosnia narrowly missed out on the 2004 European Cup (Euro) after a 1-1 draw with Denmark, a win would have given them qualification. Then in 2006, the Bosnians finished 2 points behind Spain for a spot in the tournament in Germany. Many feel they were robbed as Spain scored a 98th minute winner through Carlos Marchena at the Mestalla to equalize after Zvjezdan Misimovic scored in the 40th minute. The referee had signalled for 6 additional minutes, which is why so many were outraged. In 2008, Bosnia could have qualified as they were second in the group at one point, but disagreements between players and the federation led to many quitting the team. In 2010, Bosnia finished 2nd in their group behind Spain and had qualified for the playoffs. They drew Portugal and suffered a pair of hard fought defeats both home and away. Both matches finished 1-0 to Portugal (Bruno Alves and Raul Meireles were goalscorers). In 2012, Bosnia narrowly missed out on first place as France had beaten them to it. Bosnia once again qualified for the playoffs and once again drew Portugal. After an entertaning 0-0 draw in Zenica, Bosnia suffered a rough 6-2 defeat in Portugal. Many were outraged about that campaign considering they were denied a penalty late on in Paris while France received one after Spahic seemed to have fouled Nasri outside the box. Now, however, is Bosnia's chance to put all that aside and make history.
Their opponents are Lithuania, a team that sits on 11 points and are fourth in the table. Lithuania have won their last two matches (2-0 v Latvia, 2-0 v Liechtenstein), but have also lost three of their last five including an embarrasing 2-1 defeat to Luxembourg in a friendly match. They've also lost five of their last eight and have failed to win in six of those eight matches. Lithuania have had no luck against Bosnia in the previous three meetings, especially at home. The Lithuanians have only had two players score more than one goal in the qualifications, those players are Edgaras Cesnauskis and Deivydas Matulevicius. They've had seven different players score for them as well and they account for nine goals. Their captain and top goal scorer (of all-time) Tomas Danilevicius will hope to be the spoiler for the Bosnians as over 90% of the fans at the LFF Stadium will be Bosnians. Lithuania are ranked 112th in FIFA's latest official ranking and will be guided by their caretaker manager Igoris Pankratjevas who was assistant to former manager Csaba Laszlo (who resigned) and took over in early September this year. The Lithuanian team have not lost in the two games under Pankratjevas.
