Football; Bosnia finally put on the map

World Cup round-up

Bosnia completed a great week yesterday when they earned their first competitive victory: a 2-1 World Cup Group success in Slovenia. Last week they shocked Italy with a win by the same scoreline in a Sarajevo friendly.

Elvir Bolic, the Fenerbahce striker whose goal sank Manchester United in the Champions' League, put the Bosnians ahead after only five minutes in Ljubljana. Meho Kodro made it 2-0 in the 32nd minute before the Slovenians hit back through Zlatko Zahovic's penalty four minutes before half-time.

Bosnia's first two World Cup matches had ended in defeats: 3-0 at Greece and 4-1 at home to Croatia. Now, though, the troubled former Yugoslav republic are very much on the footballing map.

In England's group, Poland collected their first points of the campaign last night - but they had to work hard for a 2-1 home win over Moldova in Katowice. A Henryk Baluszynski free-kick gave the home side an early lead but it was not until the closing stages that they managed to score again, through a Krzysztof Warzycha spot-kick - and Sergei Clescenco promptly pulled one back, also from the penalty spot.

The weekend's best scoring feat came from Turkey's Oktay Derelioglu, who struck four times in the 7-0 thrashing of San Marino. Liechtenstein's Franz Schadler scored his country's first competitive home goal, against Macedonia at Eschen - but sadly for him and his team-mates the visitors scored 11. It was was the joint-fourth highest victory in the 66-year history of the tournament, bettered only by New Zealand's 13-0 victory over Fiji in 1982, West Germany's 12-0 triumph against Cyprus in 1970 and Mexico's 11-0 rout of St Vincent in 1992.