Slovenia crashes out of 2026 World Cup race

The Slovenian men's national football team has failed to secure qualification for the 2026 World Cup after a 0:2 defeat against Kosovo.

They will play another qualifier this week to try and get at least one victory from this qualification campaign, CE Report quotes The Slovenia Times.

This marks the first time Kosovo have beaten Slovenia, and their win has sealed the fate of Slovenia's efforts to punch a ticket for next year's World Cup.

Held in Ljubljana, the match was sold-out and there were many fans cheering for Kosovo too, which is not surprising given that there are sizeable Kosovo communities in Slovenia and some of the countries in its neighbourhood.

The victory had been a must for Slovenia to retain any hope of making it to the World Cup, but the team's lacklustre performance combined with Kosovo's inspired one resulted in the latter's major feat - advancing to an additional round of qualification for the biggest international tournament there is in football.

Fisnik Asllani scored the first goal for Kosovo as early as in the 6th minute. Slovenia's Petar Stojanović was later sent off, having received two yellow cards after spending only eight minutes on the pitch, which meant Kosovo had a one-player advantage from the 53rd minute onwards.

It also made the situation all the more challenging as two of Slovenia's stars were missing - midfielder Adam Gnezda Čerin due to too many fouls previously and striker Benjamin Šeško due to injury.

The fate of the Slovenian team was sealed in the second half with a bizarre own goal scored by Žan Karničnik.

Head coach Matjaž Kek was very disappointed after the game, saying his team lacked aggressiveness and eagerness to win. He congratulated Kosovo on a well-deserved victory.

"One-on-one they've beaten us like no other team has before," he added.

In the past five qualifiers Slovenia recorded three draws and two losses, and they will now seek to get at least one win in this qualification campaign against Sweden on 18 November.

Photo: Daniel Novakovič/STA