It was a remarkable outcome to what was genuinely an astonishing game, one that should have been won by the minnows, but might well have been snatched at the death by Mick McCarthy's old Group Eight rivals Yugoslavia. It took another memorable show of character by Vujadin Boskov's men to get the draw.

With less than half an hour remaining the men from the tiny state of Slovenia led by three goals. A little more nous of the game at this level would surely have seen them through. As the seconds slipped away, however, so did their nerve, and after Savo Milosevic scored his second goal of the evening to pull Yugoslavia level with just over 15 minutes remaining, it was hard to see the underdogs even hanging on for a result.

Still, they did and for that they have just cause for pride this morning.

Slovenia's hero - as if it could be anyone else - was their roaming midfielder Zlatko Zahovic, who scored two goals and made the third. The real pity of the night for this tournament's least fashionable side was that for much of this contest they humbled their neighbours, a recognised force in international football. For the best part of an hour they were the better side and really should have won.

Yugoslav coach Boskov said before the game that he hadn't even bothered travelling to see his opponents play because "one travels to Slovenia for skiing, not football".

He might at least have read the reports that came back from the qualifying campaign, for if he had his defence might have been alert to the threat that the 29-year-old Olympiakos player was going to pose.

As it was, Zahovic went entirely unmarked through the early stages, drifting into dangerous positions on the edge of the area repeatedly and actually missing a very good chance to put his side in front.

He made amends, though, scoring his 23rd and 24th international goals on his 47th appearance and carving a quite inept looking Yugoslavia to pieces with his passing skills.

Slovenia's considerable pace out wide helped their cause - just as it had Mick McCarthy's side against this opposition last September. But Zahovic - whose floated free-kick set up Miran Pavlin for their side's second goal - was the difference between the teams.

For him to win the game single-handedly was always going to be another matter, however, even if Sinisa Mihajlovic's sending-off two minutes after his side had fallen three behind did look to have sealed the outcome.

But for the goals and the passion - though let's face it they're quite a combination - it might well have been a rather poor game. Several prominent Yugoslav players were little short of awful, while the number of stoppages for fouls, real or imagined, averaged precisely one every two minutes, more than enough to destroy a contest with less driving momentum.

When Mladen Dabanovic chipped in a fine save for the Slovenian cause after 66 minutes, it did really seem that the game was up for a team that had been widely expected to progress from this group with, well yes, Spain.

However, behind Zahovic there were few players of any great technical ability and fewer still with any experience of standing up to pressure at this level. Had they managed to steady themselves for a little while then they might have survived, but Milosevic was starting to make an impact after coming on in the 51st minute.

He began the revival after 67 minutes when, benefiting from a terrible mistake by Marinko Galic and some quick footwork from his team-mate Miroslav Djukic.

Slovenia's shape and discipline then went out the window and inside of seven minutes they have conceded another two goals, Ljubinko Drulovic burying one from 12 yards out and Milosevic levelling matters up with a tap-in set up by Drulovic's fine run from the right.

At that stage another couple of goals for a now rampant Yugoslavia seemed entirely within the realms of possibility, but to the relief of their now frantic supporters, Slovenia rallied. In added time they might even have won it, with Zeljko Milinovic seeing his downward header fairly easily cleared off the line.

The local police might have been expecting a useful workout for Saturday's big showdown between the fans of England and Germany, but the numbers of travelling supporters from the Balkans was terribly small and there were no signs of any disturbances as the stadium emptied.

Remarkably, of those who were present around three-quarters, or some 3,000, were Slovenians. Their numerical superiority would presumably have been greater but for the fact that countries, especially tiny ones, with Yugoslavia as a neighbour probably prefer not to allow too many of their football supporters (mainly able-bodied males) leave on foreign jaunts at the one time.

Had Srecko Katanec's men held on last night, an exodus to the Lowlands might have been difficult to prevent.