Boru Pahor is a man of his word. Last month, the Slovenian Prime Minister promised to clean the shoes of the players of the national team if they would reach the World Cup.
On Wednesday night, Pahor became a shoe shine boy after the Slovenians defeated Russia to qualify for the World Cup. "I just cleaned the players' shoes but I admit I did not clean them thoroughly," Pahor told TV Slovenia after coming from the dressing room.
Pahor watched the match in the company of Slovenian President Danilo Turk, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Russian billionaire and Roman Abramovich, owner of English Premier League club Chelsea.
Car horns blew in Slovenia's second largest city Maribor, where the match took place, and in the capital Ljubljana, after the country managed to qualify for the World Cup finals for the second time since its independence in 1991 and first since 2002.
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Z. Dedič 44'
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1 - 0 |
| Player | Bookings |
|---|---|
| S. Handanovič |
 66'
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| B. Cesar | |
| B. Jokić | |
| M. Brečko | |
| M. Šuler | |
| R. Koren |
76'
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| A. Kirm | |
| A. Radosavljevič | |
V. Birsa
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55'
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Z. Dedič
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 44'
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| M. Novakovič | |
| Coach: M. Kek | |
| Player | Bookings |
|---|---|
| I. Akinfeev | |
| V. Berezutski | |
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R. Yanbayev
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| S. Ignashevich | |
| A. Anyukov | |
| Y. Zhirkov |
7'
 90+2'
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D. Bilyaletdinov
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22'
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| K. Zyryanov | |
| I. Denisov |
73'
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| A. Arshavin | |
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R. Pavlyuchenko
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| Coach: G. Hiddink | |
| Player | Bookings |
|---|---|
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for R. Yanbayev 46' |
 66'
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for R. Pavlyuchenko 46' |
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for D. Bilyaletdinov 77' |
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