4.Slovenia (2.08 million)
Population –2.08 million
Qualified – 2002,2010
Best performance:1-0 against Algeria in World Cup 2010
The fourth-smallest nation to qualify for a World Cup did so just 10 years after gaining independence from Yugoslavia. And they did so in fairly impressive fashion, progressing undefeated through a group containing not only the nation they’d just left but also Switzerland and Russia.Russia.Five wins and five draws put them through to a playoff against Romania, and a 3-2 aggregate win sent them to Japan-South Korea.
Slovenia reached the final tournaments of 2002 and 2010 after eliminating strong favorites Romania and Russia in playoffs. Their first participation in 2002 was not impressive at all, the Slovenians losing all the three group matches:1-3 against Spain and Paraguay and 0-1 against South Africa.
Their second participation was much better and brought them their first ever World Cup victory(1-0 against Algeria), and they missed a huge opportunity to reach the last 16, when they failed to maintain a 2-0 lead against the USA and the match ended in a draw(2-2), and unfortunately for them a defeat against England(0-1) and the success of the USA in the last minutes against Algeria denied them a historical qualification in the second round.