World Cup Qualifiers: Kosovo vs Slovenia! Why is the away team harder to play than Sweden when it comes to counterattacks?

Our first topic today isthe World Cup qualifier: Kosovo vs Slovenia!

There’s an interesting situation.

Kosovo is very confident about this match. After beating the powerful Sweden 2-0, their morale and confidence peaked. Tonight at home against Slovenia, whose value is only a third of Sweden’s, winning is their only goal.

But it seems the Slovenian players actually like facing such a confident Kosovo team; they even said they are happy the stadium will be full and are looking forward to a hellish atmosphere.

Are they just putting on a show, or do they genuinely feel this way?

I believe Slovenia sincerely hopes Kosovo’s confidence grows even stronger because historically, they have been very good at playing against teams full of confidence.

The Slovenian team is actually quite similar to Bosnia and Herzegovina we discussed yesterday; both are suited for defensive counterattacks rather than proactive offense.

Looking at their squad, among the top ten most valuable players, there is only one forward! And he is a center forward!

The rest of the high-value players are mainly goalkeepers, central defenders, and central midfielders.

This setup obviously suits defensive counterattacks very well but is not ideal for positional attacks.

They are aware of this themselves,so they didn’t even want to bring many wingers. In this squad, there are five professional forwards, four of whom are center forwards, and only one winger who rarely gets playing time.Basically, they just filled the numbers and emergency needs, so their playstyle will mostly rely on long balls and crosses.

Therefore, they definitely want Kosovo to be more confident, more proactive, and press harder, so they have more space to operate.

Coincidentally, Kosovo also relies on defensive counterattacks.

In the first round of qualifiers, they tried to attack proactively but suffered a heavy 4-0 defeat against Switzerland.

So in the second round against the stronger Sweden,they chose to play a 5-4-1 defensive blockand surprisingly managed to pull off an upset victory.

Note: Both of their goals came from long balls and crosses.

The reason long balls worked is that Sweden was not afraid of losing, but feared not winning.

Since Sweden basically secured a playoff spot, they only needed to win to claim first place. If they couldn’t win, a draw or loss was equally a failure. So Sweden pressed aggressively, even pushing their entire team into Kosovo’s half!

This gave Kosovo plenty of counterattack opportunities.

But Slovenia is unlikely to press forward aggressively, so Kosovo’s counterattack space might be very limited. In a passionate home atmosphere, Kosovo may feel compelled to attack more actively, which would reduce their counterattack effectiveness and instead benefit Slovenia’s counterattacks.

Additionally, Slovenia has some small advantages.

For example, Kosovo’s previous coach, Gërxhaliu, is Slovenian and even coached Slovenia’s youth national team.

So Slovenia’s coach Kek said he might consult Gërxhaliu, as having such first-hand detailed information is very helpful for preparation.

Moreover, Kosovo’s captain, Rahmani, is confirmed absent, and Delova, who started in the last game, is also missing; both are key central defenders.

Also, due to various reasons, seven players joined the training camp late, which could affect their match fitness.

Overall, although Kosovo’s record is currently better and they are playing at home today,

facing a defensive counterattacking team like Slovenia, combined with other unfavorable factors, it might still be quite challenging.

So, can Slovenia satisfy their fans? What do you think? I hope they at least avoid defeat!

Alright, for today’s other matches, I will still send you my written opinions tonight. If anything is unclear, feel free to ask me. “Watch and understand the game,” see you then!

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