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Thursday, November 18, 1999 Published at 00:14 GMT

Slovenia to make Euro debut


Slovenia to make Euro debut
European minnows Slovenia overcame much-fancied Ukraine to secure their first ever berth in the European Championships, 3-2 on aggregate.

Meanwhile, Denmark breezed into last 16 of the competition in Belgium and the Netherlands with a huge 8-0 aggregrate drubbing of Israel. The two sides join Turkey and England as the last countries to qualify.

The draw for the 2000 European Championships will be held on 12 December.

Pavlin strike

It was left to Slovenia - only formed as a country when Yugoslavia began to disintegrate in 1992 - to pull off the biggest upset of the qualifying stage, adding a 1-1 away draw in Kiev to their 2-1 advantage from the home leg.


[ image: width=150]

Despite being able to call upon the prodigious talents of players like AC Milan's Andriy Shevchenko and Dynamo Kiev's Serhiy Rebrov, Ukraine were unable to reproduce the form that helped them hold world champions France to home and away draws.

Rebrov slotted a penalty at the Olympic Stadium to draw the aggregate scores level, but Miran Pavlin made no mistake 13 minutes from time when he put away the goal that boosted Slovenia to their first major international tournament.

Denmark added a 3-0 home victory to the 5-0 obliteration of the scandal-hit Israelis in Tel Aviv at the weekend.

After Saturday's match, there were newspaper allegations that the Israel team had spent the night before the game at a party with call girls, before returning after the match.

Ebbe Sand, Brian Nielson and Jon Dahl Tomasson scored for Denmark, although there are worries over goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel, who was injured.

The Danes won the European Championships in Sweden in 1992 after being called up as late replacements for Yugoslavia, who were kicked out of due to the conflict in the Balkans.

Euro 2000 qualified nations
The draw will be on 12 December

Hosts: Belgium and the Netherlands

Automatic qualifiers: Czech Republic, Norway, Spain, Italy, France, Yugoslavia, Germany, Sweden, Portugal, Romania

Play-off qualifiers: Denmark, Turkey, Slovenia, England


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