Sergej Barbarez falls to his second home on his home debut – DW – October 11, 2024

It was always going to be an uphill battle for Bosnia's new coach Sergej Barbarez, who was appointed only last April. For the former Bundesliga star, his home debut against the country he calls his second home, Germany, was something special. But he came to the job without any high-level coaching experience – a job he had sought 15 years ago when he was overlooked in favor of Safet Susic.

In retrospect, it is difficult to argue with the Bosnian Football Association's decision at the time, as Susic admittedly led a “golden generation” of the Dragons to their only major tournament, the 2014 World Cup. Although Bosnia failed to progress beyond the group stage, their defeat was the result of a goal by Edin Dzeko against Nigeria that was incorrectly ruled out for offside. It seemed to be the beginning of better times for a team that had barely distinguished itself since the country's declaration of independence from the former Yugoslavia in 1992.

Precarious job

But from the highest position in the FIFA rankings – 13th place in 2013 – to the only World Cup, it was mostly downhill. Going into Friday night's competition, Bosnia was in a lowly 75th place.

Since Susic's dismissal at the end of 2014, the position of head coach of the Bosnian men's football team has been one of the most precarious in sport. Barbarez is the eighth man to try out for the job in the last decade – and few, if any, of them have lasted longer than a year.

But Barbarez, on a four-year contract, will be hoping to become the exception and last month's goalless Nations League draw in Hungary will have been encouraging.

Bright start for Bosnia

The home side, playing in the always lively but relatively small and aging Bilelo Polje stadium in Zenica in central Bosnia, started well and four minutes later the Dragons were close to opening the scoring when Ivan Basic fired in a free kick on 25 Meters in front of the goal, debutant goalkeeper Alexander Nübel sailed dangerously just past the left post.

In the first 20 minutes or so, Bosnia did well to disrupt the build-up of a German team that coach Nagelsmann was forced to improvise due to the absence of several regular players.

But gradually Germany began to take control. Just before the half-hour mark, Florian Wirtz made a brilliant run through the Bosnian defense, receiving a long ball from Robert Andrich with his back to goal before passing it back to Deniz Undav, who pushed it into the bottom left corner. Moments later, it looked as if Germany would let Barbarez's team down – but that play was called back for offside.

But five minutes later, Stuttgart's Ermedin Demirovic – one of several hosts with strong German connections – gave the Dragons faithful another glimmer of hope. Demirovic, sent alone to his Stuttgart teammate in the German goal, hammered the ball onto the crossbar, slightly deterred by Andrich, who stormed backwards.

However, that hope would be short-lived as the man of the night, Undav, scored a second goal just seconds later. In fact, the Stuttgart player could have scored a hat trick after about an hour – but this would also be considered offside in the VAR investigation.

Over the next ten minutes, Barbarez, who spent most of the game cheering on his team from the coaching area, could be seen sitting on the bench at times, almost like a man resigned to his fate.

Bosnia's final push

But then, out of nowhere, Bosnia caught fire. Their 38-year-old captain, former Wolfsburg striker Edin Dzeko, headed a cross into the goal from a corner, triggering a roar that would have brought down the roof of the stadium in a more enclosed stadium. Suddenly the home fans were really excited again – and so were the Dragons. Moments later, Dario Saric hammered a shot from wide that was not far from Nübel's left post, prompting renewed roars – and then a collective sigh from the white-and-blue-clad fans.

In the end, however, Germany repelled Bosnia's last attempt to equalize – there should be no surprise for Barbarez's underdogs this evening – they remain at the bottom of Group A3 at half-time.

In fact, it was always going to be a tough fight – and probably not just this evening in central Bosnia. However, a 2-1 loss to Germany shouldn't play a major role in determining how long the Dragons' newest head coach ultimately lasts.

Edited by: Louis Oelofse