Savo Milosevic aims to lead Bosnia through Euro 2024 playoffs

After a hat trick of European Championship qualifications this week for soccer teams from the former Yugoslavia BosniaHerzegovina aims to make it a record four at the tournament next yearThe sense of history was appreciated Thursday by Bosnias coach Savo Milosevic the former Aston Villa forward who represented Serbia under three different team names in a 15year international career and also has been an assistant coach of MontenegroAlso ReadFIFA Chief Arsene Wenger completes historic visit to IndiaSerbia advanced to Euro 2024 on Sunday from its qualifying group Slovenia made it on Monday Croatia followed on TuesdayIts incredible actually Milosevic said at UEFA headquarters after Bosnia was paired with Ukraine in the playoff semifinals in March The winner will host Israel or Iceland five days later with a place at Euro 2024 in Germany at stakeAlready three teams from exYugoslavia have qualified Milosevic told The Associated Press iquestHopefully we will join them Its something almost impossible to imagine before thisAlso ReadLast dance is onOnly Croatia and North Macedonia of the seven UEFA member federations who were part of the former Yugoslavia qualified for Euro 2020 At the first 24team edition in 2016 it was just Croatia playing in FranceAt Euro 2000 Milosevic was the fivegoal tournament joint top scorer playing for the FR Yugoslavia which was the combined Serbia and Montenegro team Slovenia also qualified then for its major tournament debutThe unified Yugoslavia team played at the 1990 World Cup and then was famously excluded from Euro 1992 weeks before the start because of United Nations sanctions when the region fell into a devastating war With Yugoslavia out Denmark got a late call and stunningly went on to win the titleA revival on the field for soccer in the Balkans comes as Euro 2024 organizer UEFA is led by officials from the regionUEFA president Aleksander Ceferin is a lawyer from Slovenia its chief of football Zvonimir Boban played in the standout Croatia team of the 1990s and the senior executive liaising with 55 member federations is from Serbia Zoran LakovicBosnian media has reported Ceferin as saying Sunday when attending the SerbiaBulgaria game that he would certainly like as many teams from the region to qualifyMilo evic acknowledged Thursday its not going to be easy and not just because it first faces a Ukraine team he believes is the best among the 12 teams in the qualifying playoffsHe started in the Bosnia job just two months ago as the teams third coach this year His predecessor Meho Kodro lasted for just a few weeks and only two gamesStill Bosnia was assured of a playoff place because of its Nations League results in 2022 and that bought time for Milo evic to take stockI tried to use these last three games to see what we have what we basically can count on he said I didnt look for the resultsThose results included two heavy losses 50 at home to Portugal and 41 at Luxembourg which is in a separate Euro 2024 playoffs bracketThe bestknown Bosnian players are still Edin Deko who started for Inter Milan in the Champions League final six months ago and Miralem Pjanic They combine for 70 years of age and close to 250 nationalteam gamesThere is always quality in Bosnian football genetically kids are born there with quality and talent said Milosevic who also was born there Its a historical thingThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever