Slovenia captain Robert Koren has warned England his side will be focused for their Group C showdown in Port Elizabeth on Wednesday (Slovenia 4/6 to qualify from Group C).
England beat Slovenia 2-1 at Wembley last September, after Swedish referee Jonas Eriksson had awarded a dubious penalty as Wayne Rooney and Bostjan Cesar tugged each other’s shirts in the box.
England’s second goal also owed much to fortune as a Jermain Defoe shot took a heavy deflection off Slovenia midfielder Aleksandar Radosavljevic before finding the net.
Koren, whose side only need a point from the game to qualify, says this meeting will be a very different affair.
He said: “We didn’t really prepare for that game and we still gave them a really good game. They were lucky in that game to get a result, the referee was up and down when we played them at Wembley.
“It will not be about revenge for us on Wednesday, it was a while ago since we played them. It was completely different, because we were just preparing for a game in the qualification group, we didn’t think too much about the England game.
“But we’re not thinking about that game, it is already behind us. This is a new opportunity for us and we will be up for it.”
Former West Brom midfielder Koren was pleased with his side’s performance in the 2-2 draw against the USA.
He said: “In the first half we played really well, we got two goals and the game looked easy for us. Still in the second half we were in control and I think we were disappointed in the USA, they didn’t show too much good football – it was lucky for them to score two goals.
“The England game is a different story, but we will go through the (USA) game and see where we were not good enough and try to do better against England.
“Like all the games at the World Cup it will be a hard game but we are full of confidence to get the three points.”
Koren expects his side to be able to match England in every area and would not single out any individuals who they will need to pay special attention to.
“Of course, you expect every game to be hard,” he said.
“It was a hard game against the US, they tried to play aggressive and strong football but we coped with this really well and I think we deserved the three points more than them.
“There is nobody in particular we will have to watch out for when we play England; we will play team against team, 11 against 11, the game starts at zero. We are full of confidence because we have four points so far, we are not worried.”
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