Slovenia hold Croatia to 1-1 draw
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Prso opened the scoring for Croatia.
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EURO 2004 PLAYOFFS
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• Second legs on Wednesday
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| EURO 2004 QUALIFIERS |
Portugal (hosts), France, Denmark, Czech Republic, Sweden, Germany, Greece, England, Bulgaria, Italy, Switzerland.
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ZAGREB, Croatia -- Slovenia's hopes of qualifying for their third major tournament in succession were boosted by a 1-1 draw with Croatia in the first leg of their Euro 2004 playoff.
Ermin Siljak scored the away goal that gives the Slovenians a slight edge against their Adriatic neighbors for Wednesday's second leg in Ljubljana.
Monaco striker Dado Prso had put Croatia in front after just five minutes but the home side only rarely threatened after Siljak's equalizer on 22 minutes.
The Slovenian striker, who plays for Chinese side Dalian Shide, rose above the Croatian defense to head home from close range and add to the impressive tally of eight goals he scored during the qualifying group stage.
But Siljak, who almost stunned Croatia again eight minutes from time with a header that went just wide, will miss the return leg after collecting his second yellow card of the competition.
"We knew it was going to be a tough match and it really wasn't a nice game to watch," said Siljak.
"Our aim was primarily not to concede a goal, but we managed to score one as well, so we did more than we hoped for."
Slovenia reached the last European championship finals in 2000 and followed that success by also qualifying for the 2002 World Cup.
Prso, who has been in impressive form for the French league leaders, found the net for Croatia with a tap-in from close range after Ivica Mornar headed a cross down into his path.
But Prso wasn't so lucky on 32 minutes when his header was deflected onto the post by impressive Slovenian keeper Mladen Dabanovic.
"We showed too much heart and not enough play," said Croatian coach Otto Baric said.
"Instead of keeping the ball on the ground, we rushed our game trying to skip play and feed our strikers with high balls before they could move into threatening positions.
"We simply have to seek victory from the start in the return match and I think we are capable of doing that."
