Slovenian football players are currently the hottest property in the country of two million people, which qualified for its second-ever World Cup. Media have dedicated the bulk of their time to glorifying the victory over Russia, labeling it as "amazing", "exceptional", "unbelievable" and the like.
Crowds reveled through the night on Wednesday. The sounds of fire crackers, car horns and chants filled towns, large and small. In Ljubljana a crowd of several hundred blocked off the thoroughfare leading through the centre of the city, with police taking a blind eye to the mass traffic violation.
Police did not report major difficulties during the night. Seven people, including four Russians, were arrested before the match in Maribor began. Two Russian citizens were arrested at the stadium for trying to get in with forged tickets, but otherwise police only had to deal with minor infractions.
The match itself drew record numbers of people to the small screens. Public broadcaster RTV Slovenija, which broadcast the match, said that a poll it commissioned had shown that more than 534,000 people aged over 10 had watched it on average, including nearly 700,000 at the very end.
Fans in Maribor, where the match was played in front of a capacity crowd of over 12,000 at Ljudski vrt stadium, were the first to get a chance to congratulate Slovenia's new heroes, as the team appeared in the central square at around midnight. The celebrations will move on Thursday to the capital of Ljubljana, where the team is expected to appear at several venues, including the central square.
As part of their visit to Ljubljana, the team will also be received by President Danilo Tuerk. Tuerk was on hand at the match, hosting Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev, and then took part in the ceremony in Maribor, where he joined the crowd in chanting "champions".
The players themselves have had little time to share their impressions with the press so far, rushing to celebrate in the locker room straight after the match and appearing in the press centre briefly after the ceremony in Maribor.
The man-of-the-hour Zlatko Dedic, who outleaped two Russian defenders to score the 44th minute goal that put Slovenia through, could not hide his emotions even two hours after the match: "Unbelievable. I don't know what to say. I don't think it has sunk in yet, but we're ecstatic."
"There was no fear on the field, we saw that we had opportunities. We continued to improve on the field and crowned it with a goal. In the second half, we played somewhat more cautiously in defending the lead," Dedic said.
Meanwhile, Slovenian defender Marko Suler confirmed what local and international media saw on the field. "We wanted this more [than the Russians], plain and simple. We knew what we had to do and the Russians underestimated us."
Prior to that, a beaming Slovenian manager Matjaz Kek described the team as "immortal" and called the win over Russia a "fairytale ending from a Hollywood movie" as he addressed the press.
On a more sour note, Kek complained about his Russian counterpart Gus Hiddink not shaking his hand after the match. Saying that he understood "that it must not be easy for him", the 48-year-old Slovenian manager said that he thought he nevertheless deserved a handshake from the Dutch coach.
Hiddink left the stadium without giving the usual press conference after the match and was later quoted by Croatian website index.hr as blaming the defeat on a "lack of luck".
Slovenia was one of four teams from Europe to win qualification for the World Cup in South Africa on Wednesday. The others were France (defeated Ireland), Portugal (defeated Bosnia-Herzegovina) and Greece (defeated Ukraine). The final place at the 32-team competition was secured by Uruguay early on Thursday European time.
The draw to determine the groups for the preliminary stages of the tournament, which gets underway on 11 June, will be held in Cape Town on 4 December.
