NEW: Cyprus 1-2 Yugoslavia (Group 5)
28 October 1989, Athens: In the vast Athens Olympic stadium, there were almost eight seats available to each spectator present, and with sections of the sparse crowd gathered in just a few areas, there was the inevitable feeling that this game was played out in front of an empty arena. Would it affect the teams, though? Yugoslavia could probably be forgiven, at least from the outside looking in, for treating the fixture lightly, given the fact that they'd already won the group, albeit they'd not want to slip up against a team notoriously known for rarely winning qualifying matches. The Cypriots could probably find courage in the possible fact that the visitors were under-strength. Read more . . .
NEW: Yugoslavia 3-1 Scotland (UEFA Group 5)
September 1989, Zagreb: Vujadin Stanojković had been an ever-present in the qualification so far as right wing-back, but was relegated to the substitutes bench here as Osim evidently found that his position was surplus to requirements. Compared to the 5-4-1 he had fielded in the previous qualifiers, Osim sacrificed wing-back Stanojković to put an extra striker into the team. This additional forward would turn out to be Jakovljević, who recently has switched to Nantes in French football (as so many other Yugoslavian players at the time, and the club of Scottish star play Mo Johnston). Osim revealed to media that he had needed to contemplate whether to play Jakovljević or Savićević, but once again the latter needed to content with a place among the reserves – a status he had publicly announced he was unhappy with. Read more...