Bosnia – Romania 3-1. Sergej Barbarez (54 years old), the home team's coach, gave the first reaction after the decisive success in Zenica. He explained that the bench players made the difference.
And this was seen throughout the preliminaries, believes the technician, who only had words of praise for his players.
Sergej Barbarez, the coach of Bosnia, after beating Romania: “We were motivated by this chance”
“The first half was ok. I was happy. I warned about their counter-attacks. I feel sorry for Malic, I changed him at half-time, but he is very happy that we won. We move on. We're going to try our hand at Vienna.
I also had a plan B. There are many good things. Muharemovic and Katic are real players. Katic is a leader. They are compatible. This is our way. Vrem to last for many years. We want these boys to lead the national team to the top in the coming years. We want to play ten years together.
We were missing a few starters today. But this is the moment I wanted. I was talking about having a large batch. Memic can play both sides. It is a blessing. We work a lot.
We are going to Vienna with great confidence. We wanted this. We dreamed of having a play-off and a final in Austria. I am sure that in Vienna half the stadium will be ours.
It is something important to win twice against Romania in these preliminaries. Before the first game we were hoping to win. And now I'd be lying if I said I was sure we'd win today too.
After the goal scored by Romania, we managed to neutralize them and have opportunities. We had good players on the bench who did what they had to do. Throughout the qualifying campaign we had players who came off the bench very well,” Barbarez said at the press conference.
Asked if Lucescu's statements about the tour match motivated them, Barbarez said:
After the first game, but also yesterday, he said that we didn't deserve to win that game, but for me that's fine.
He is a great coach and he has the right to say something. I needed no further motivation. We were motivated by this chance that is now in our hands.
– Sergey Barbarezthe coach of Bosnia
PHOTO GALLERY. The images of hostility! How the Romanians were received in Zenica
Ranking from the Romania group
