Bosnia and Herzegovina national football team

Infobox National football team |i Name = Bosnia and Herzegovina
Badge = Bosnia and H football association.png FIFA Trigramme = BIH
Nickname = Plavo-žuti, žuto-plavi, Zlatni ljiljani
Association = Football Association of B&H
Confederation = UEFA (Europe)
Coach = Miroslav Blažević
Most caps = Elvir Bolić (52)
Top scorer = elvir bolic (22)
Captain = Emir Spahić
Home Stadium = Bilino Polje, Zenica
Asim Ferhatović Hase, Sarajevo
FIFA Rank = 75
1st ranking date = May 1996
FIFA max = 25
FIFA max date = August 2007
FIFA min = 173
FIFA min date = September 1996
Elo Rank = 80
Elo max = 53
Elo max date = February 28, 2001
May 28, 2006
May 31, 2006
August 16, 2006
Elo min = 87
Elo min date = October 5, 1999

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First game = fb|Iran 1 - 3 Bosnia and Herzegovina flagicon|Bosnia and Herzegovina|1992 (Tehran, Iran; June 6, 1993)
Largest win = flagicon|Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina 7 - 0 fb-rt|Estonia (Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina; September 10, 2008)
Largest loss = fb|Argentina 5 - 0 Bosnia and Herzegovina flagicon|Bosnia and Herzegovina (La Plata, Argentina; May 14, 1998)
World cup apps =
World cup first =
World cup best =
Regional name = European Championship
Regional cup apps =
Regional cup first =
Regional cup best = The Bosnia and Herzegovina national football team is the national football team of Bosnia and Herzegovina and is controlled by the Football Association of Bosnia and Herzegovina. They played their first match in 1995 after the split of Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Before that, Bosnian-Herzegovinian players played for the Yugoslavia national football team.

Last and next games

*Last game: fb|Bosnia and Herzegovina 7-0 fb-rt|Estonia - Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina - 10 September, 2008. (2010 FIFA World Cup Qualifier)

*Next game; fb|Turkey vs fb-rt|Bosnia and Herzegovina - Istanbul, Turkey - 11 October, 2008 (2010 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers)

Previous Qualifying Campaigns

The team has never qualified for a major tournament, but in the qualifying campaign for Euro 2004, only one goal in the last game against Denmark separated them from the finals in Portugal.

In the World Cup 2006 qualifying round, the Bosnians played surprisingly well when matched against teams like Spain (drawing both times), Belgium (one win, one loss), and Serbia and Montenegro (one draw, one loss).

Playing against the Serbian team inspires much national pride, as is common with any match that features two former Yugoslav republics. Against Serbia and Montenegro, the Bosnian team drew at home but lost the second leg in Belgrade, 1-0. Both matches had extra precautions being taken by officials, to prevent nationalistic rioting. UEFA fined both football federations when Serb nationalists attacked and injured several Bosnian fans.

Bosnia finished as runners-up to a Yugoslavian Premier League XI in the 2001 Millennium Super Cup in India.

Bosnia's best player and top scorer of all times is Elvir Bolic. He scored 24 goals in 55 caps for his country.

UEFA Euro 2008 Qualifiers

After the World Cup 2006 qualifying round, much was expected of the Bosnian squad for the 2008 UEFA European Football Championship qualifying. Bosnia and Herzegovina opened their race for the tournament with a 5-2 victory over Malta playing away. However, major disappointing results followed with losses to Hungary and Greece at home soil, and an unexpected draw with Moldova in Chisinau. With nearly no hopes left for the squad, major changes took place. Coach Fuad Muzurović replaced Blaž Slišković and following the protest of 13 different players against the Football Association of Bosnia and Herzegovina by not attending national games, Muzurović had to rebuild the national team from scratch.

A team was successfully put together but little was expected of the squad since they did not have enough time to go under proper training against the next qualifying match against the solid Norwegians which was awaiting of picking up 3 points as being the home side. However, with a stunning upset the Bosnians took advantage of all chances during the game and came to victory with a 2-1 win, bringing hopes of qualifying back to life.

After the game against Norway, the Bosnian team had two great successes with an astounding victory against Turkey and a marginal victory against Malta. After these two games, the Bosnian squad unfortunately entered their second success depression for the qualifiers which cost them the loss of qualification. A defeat by Hungary and a horrible bitter defeat by Moldova at home soil dramatically changed the morale of both the team and the fans. The Bosnians then suffered two more defeats against Greece and Norway officially dropping them out of qualifications and an extra final conclusive defeat by Turkey marking the end of their Euro 2008 dream.

Currently, Bosnia and Herzegovina are the 74th best football nation in the FIFA World Rankings after a major sink from their record high, 25th place, past August.

World Cup record

*1930 to 1938 - "was part of Kingdom of Yugoslavia"
*1950 to 1990 - "was part of SFR Yugoslavia"
*1994 - "Did not enter"
*1998 to 2006 - "Did not qualify"
*2010 - Qualify underway

European Championship record

*1960 to 1992 - "was part of SFR Yugoslavia"
*1996 - "Did not enter"
*2000 to 2008 - "Did not qualify"

Previous Managers

* Fuad Muzurović 1995 - 1998
* Džemaludin Mušović 1998 - 1999
* Faruk Hadžibegić 1999
* Mišo Smajlović 1999 - 2002
* Blaž Slišković 2002 - 2006
* Fuad Muzurović 2006 - 2007
* Meho Kodro 2008
* Miroslav Blazevic 2008 - present

Notable Players

*Sergej Barbarez
*Elvir Baljić
*Elvir Bolić
*Vlado Gudelj
*Mirsad Hibić
*Meho Kodro
*Hasan Salihamidžić
*Safet Sušić
*Saša Papac
*Emir Spahić *
*Muhamed Konjić
*Zvjezdan Misimović *
*Vedad Ibišević *
*Mirsad Bešlija
*Zlatan Bajramović *
*Vedin Musić
*Elvir Rahimić *(* = Still active for national side.)

Current Squad

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FIFA World Cup qualification

2010 FIFA World Cup qualification - UEFA Group 5
expanded = yes
fixtures = yes
tiebreakers =

Euro 2008 Qualifications

UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying Group C
expanded=yes

footballbox|date = June 2, 2007
20:00 CEST|team1 = fb-rt|BIH |score = 3–2 |team2 = fb|TUR |goals1 = Muslimović 27'
Džeko 45+2'
Ćustović 90'|goals2 = Şükür 13'
Sabri 39'|stadium = Asim Ferhatović Hase, Sarajevo
Attendance: 20,000
Referee: Fröjdfeldt (Sweden)

footballbox|date = June 6, 2007
20:15 CEST|team1 = fb-rt|BIH |score = 1–0 |team2 = fb|MLT |goals1 = Muslimović 6'|goals2 = |stadium = Asim Ferhatović Hase, Sarajevo
Attendance: 15,000
Referee: Richards (Wales)

ee also

* FIFA World Cup
* UEFA European Football Championship
* Bosnia and Herzegovina national under-21 football team
* Bosnia and Herzegovina national under-19 football team
* Bosnia and Herzegovina national under-17 football team

External links

* [http://www.bhfanaticos.com/ BHFanaticos] ]
* [http://sport.becka-raja.at/ Sport Becka Raja]
* [http://www.sportsport.ba/ SportSport.ba]
* [http://www.sportin.ba/ Sports News Portal]
* [http://www.nfsbih.ba/ Bosnia and Herzegovina Football Association]
* [http://www.uefa.com/footballeurope/countries/association=60094/index.html UEFA.com (Bosnia and Herzegovina)]
* [http://www.rsssf.com/tablesb/bos-intres.html RSSSF archive of results]
* [http://www.rsssf.com/miscellaneous/bih-recintlp.html RSSSF archive of most capped players and highest goalscorers]
* [http://www.bosnian-sport.com Bosnian-Sport.com]
* [http://www.bihsoccer.com/ www.bihsoccer.com]
* [http://www.bihsoccer.com Fansite] (Not in English language)
* [http://www.belajboys.com Fansite] (Not in English language)
* [http://www.bhfanaticos.com Fansite] (Not in English language)