Matjaž Kek will be remembered as the most successful Slovenian coach. After taking them to the World Cup in South Africa in 2010, he secured a visa for the European Championship in Germany with the national team on Monday night. It will be their first appearance at the Euro after 24 years of waiting! Slovenia beat Kazakhstan (2-1) at home in the last qualifying round. The goals were scored by Benjamin Šeško and Benjamin Verbić, while Orazov scored the only goal for the guests. At no time did they question the passage, even though the Kazakhs threatened dangerously, but they failed to bring uncertainty into the match.
After the match, Kek looked like a man from whom several tons of weight had fallen. – Joy, we are happy and proud. I think we deserved this and thank all of Slovenia for the enormous positive energy. It paid off, for this generation that was declared losers and this is a big thing for our football. The goal was clear from the first round and we achieved it. I hope that this will be a new motive for the entire Slovenian football. Thank you to everyone, from the players to the people in the association and, of course, the fans. This is a beautiful day for all of us. Today, Slovenia has risen and that is the most beautiful thing. I congratulate my players – said Kek.
During his tenure in the national team, many people moved him to Hajduk and Dinamo, the local public believed that Slovenia did not have the quality for major competitions, and that Kek was not the right man for them. In the end, he convinced them all. His contract expires after the Euros, but he doesn’t even know if he’ll stay. – First I’ll enjoy this, and already in the morning I’m going back to my way of life and my routines. How and where to go? There will be plenty of time for that. I’m happy to look ahead and not back, and in these five years a lot has happened. One should know when enough is enough, but now I’m only looking ahead. I wish everyone was as happy as I am. You have no idea how happy I am. It wasn’t easy, but we were excellent from the first day of the qualifiers – he said and continued about his contract. It is only important to me that Slovenia will be written somewhere in the balls in the draw. After the draw, we said right away that we wanted to go to the Euros and that we were not interested in anything else. I didn’t sleep well the last two nights, I had no peace. I knew we were good and I wanted us to confirm that. And we’ll see what happens at the Euros… I’m sorry that the people from my professional staff are not here, without whom none of this would be possible.