Last-gasp burst saves Yugoslavia's day

CHARLEROI (BELGIUM), JUNE 14. Ten-man Yugoslavia fought back from 3-0 down to salvage a 3-3 draw against Balkan neighbours Slovenia on Tuesday in a day of upsets at the European football championships.

Two goals by Zlato Zahovic and one by Miran Pavlin seemed to assure underdog Slovenia of an easy victory in Group `C' until the Yugoslavs hit back with three goals in a six-minute burst in the second half. Savo Milosevic scored twice and Ljubinko Drulovic once for a Yugoslavia side that was reduced to 10 men after veteran defender Sinisa Mihajlovic was sent off in the 59th minute for a second bookable offence.

The result left the two teams joint second behind Norway, surprise 1-0 winner over Spain in the opening Group `C' game in Eindhoven earlier on Tuesday.

It was the highest scoring game so far played in the European championships, and one of the most exciting.

The Slovenians, ranked by bookmakers as 150-1 outsiders before the start of the tournament, looked as though they were going to devour the fancied Yugoslavs. A crowd of 20,000 at the Municipal Stadium in Charleroi saw Yugoslavia wilt in the first half as Slovenia made effective use of long balls to puncture its opponents' shaky defence.

It was the first encounter between the two countries, since Slovenia split from the old Yugoslavia in 1991. Slovenia's Zeljko Milinovic set the tone in the fourth minute when he smashed a free kick narrowly wide of the post, with goalkeeper Ivica Kralj well beaten.

The Slovenian pressure paid off in the 23rd minute when Amir Karic sent a long cross to Zahovic, which the striker headed into the corner of the net from near the penalty spot.

Zahovic grabbed his second on 57 minutes when he latched onto a misplaced pass from Mihajlovic in the Yugoslav penalty area and slammed the ball home. Five minutes earlier, Pavlin put Slovenia 2-0 in front when he outjumped the Yugoslav defence to head home a free kick from Zahovic.

Just when it seemed that Slovenia was about to coast to victory, Yugoslavia miraculously recovered and exploded into life with three goals to earn the draw.

Milosevic grabbed his first on 67 minutes when Miroslav Djukic lobbed the ball over the head of goalkeeper Mladen Dabanovic for the striker to slot the ball into the empty goal.

Three minutes later Drulovic reduced the gap with a 10-metre drive, before Milosevic scored again on 73 minutes to grab the unexpected equalizer for Yugoslavia.

In the dying minutes, both sides had the chance to win the game, but good goalkeeping on both sides prevented any further scoring. However, veteran Yugoslav coach Vujadin Boskov amazingly felt his team could have pulled off a victory. ``We started badly,'' said the 69-year-old Boskov in arguably the understatement of the tournament so far.

``It's a mystery to me how the team managed to wake up like that, but suddenly they began to play, to go forward and eventually get the equaliser.''

His Slovenian counterpart Srecko Katanec blamed lack of experience for his team's late collapse.

``Obviously it is very disappointing to concede three goals after Mihajlovic was sent off,'' said Katanec, who played under Boskov at Sampdoria. ``It's a problem with experience. My team is lacking in it (experience). That's why Yugoslav managed to get back level.''

Mihajlovic will now miss his country's next match against Norway. Zahovic, meanwhile, reflected on what might have been.

``I am especially satisfied with the way our team played. We were in dreamland for an hour. We played at more than 100 per cent of our capacity, but afterwards we paid for it,'' he mused.

- DPA & AFP

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