Star player:
Robert Koren

Previous appearances:
2002 (first round)

How they qualified
UEFA
Poland (a)            1-1
Slovakia (h)          2-1
N Ireland (h)        2-0
Czech Rep (a)      0-1
Czech Rep (h)      0-0
N Ireland (a)         0-1
San Marino (h)      5-0
Poland (h)            3-0
Slovakia (a)           2-0
San Marino (a)       3-0

Playoffs
Russia (a)             1-2
Russia (h)             1-0

Chances:
Stunned Russia in the play-offs to progress but surely the USA and England will bar their path to the last 16.

Strange but true
Wayne Rooney, of Group C rivals England, is public enemy No.1 in Slovenia ahead of the finals, following an incident in the friendly loss at Wembley last September. Rooney kicked Bostjan Cesar only for the referee to give England a penalty. “The whole of Europe knows what Rooney did. He deliberately tried to injure me,” Cesar says. “We will give our all to make England’s World Cup game against us an unpleasant experience for Rooney and his teammates.”