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SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, June 18. Bosnia and Herzegovina and Switzerland played 0 0 after 73 minutes.
SoFi Stadium, Los Angeles, June 18. Bosnia and Herzegovina and Switzerland played 73 minutes at 0-0.
Barbarez's team was like a soaked, ragged cloth, plastered stubbornly onto the Swiss faces. 38% possession, passing the ball around at the back whenever they got it, passing without any dignity, but the defense never cracked.
Then came the water break.
FIFA inserted a 3-minute hydration break into each half this year. Officially, it's for player welfare, but Swiss coach Yakin turned it into a tactical nuclear button. As soon as the break ended, he immediately sent on three fast players, including 20-year-old Manzambi. After the match, Yakin admitted into the microphone that it was a "carefully planned double substitution." He bet that the Bosnian players would hit a physical wall after the 70th minute. He won the bet.
In the 74th minute, Manzambi broke the deadlock with a volley. In the 80th minute, Muharemovic received a straight red for a tactical foul. Bosnia's nine-match unbeaten run was stripped away along with their defense. Down to ten men, the Swiss speed tore the gaps wide open. Vargas in the 84th minute, Manzambi's brace in the 90th minute, Mahmic pulled one back for Bosnia in the 90+3rd minute, and Xhaka sealed the score at 4-1 with a penalty in the 90+7th minute.
16 minutes, 5 goals. The final xG (expected goals) landed at 2.01 for Switzerland vs 0.24 for Bosnia. Bosnia managed only 5 shots throughout the match.
Barbarez vented his frustration into the Reuters microphone after the game: "We were the better team before the water break. We had two, three great chances that should have been goals. We controlled the game."
It sounds like making excuses, but the numbers are on his side. It was indeed 0-0 for the first 73 minutes. The problem is, football never counts the first 73 minutes.
This Bosnia team is fundamentally a makeshift operation.
The 54-year-old Barbarez had zero coaching experience when he took over the national team in April 2024. When the FA president first called, he refused to answer, afraid of being roped in as a free consultant. Eventually, the call got through, and he took the hot potato. Check his resume: over a decade as a professional Texas Hold'em poker player, with WSOP total winnings of just over $65,700, zero gold bracelets, zero rings, plus a few years as a TV commentator. A guy who read people across poker tables for over ten years and dissected games in front of cameras for a few years, now standing on the coaching sideline reading matches. Defector gave him the title "the most interesting rookie of this World Cup."
In the year he took over, Bosnia was ranked 66th in the FIFA rankings, hadn't won a game all year, lost their first friendly 3-0 to England, and scraped together only 2 points from their first six Nations League matches.
Then Džeko returned. The 40-year-old veteran moved from Fiorentina to Schalke 04 in the Bundesliga 2 on January 22, 2026, scoring 6 goals with 3 assists in 11 games, securing the club's promotion to the Bundesliga with two games to spare on May 2, snatching a Bundesliga 2 title along the way. Grinding it out in the mud of the second division in May, he was wearing the captain's armband on World Cup grass in June. From the second tier to the World Cup in five weeks.
Bosnia has a population of about 3.11 million. Of the 48 teams at this World Cup, only Curaçao and Cape Verde have fewer people. But this very bunch sent Italy home three months ago in Zenica.
In the World Cup qualifier playoff at the Bilino Polje stadium on March 31, it was 1-1 after regular time and extra time. Keane scored first, Tabakovic equalized. Bosnia won 4-1 in the penalty shootout, kicking Italy out of the World Cup for the third consecutive tournament. Over 150,000 people poured onto the streets of Sarajevo to celebrate afterwards.
This is Bosnia's second-ever World Cup appearance, and none of the 24 players in the squad had ever played in a World Cup before. Barbarez knows exactly what chips these young lads have. He borrowed some grit from Croatia; in a report by L'Équipe, he publicly said he draws inspiration from Croatian football. At the same time, he constantly lowered expectations in front of the media, repeatedly asking people to stop putting too much pressure on youngsters like Alajbegović. Small nations fear being hyped to death; an 18-year-old placed on the altar of "genius" might never want to return to the national team if he falls. Barbarez spent over a decade at the poker table; he knows exactly when to raise the stakes and when to firmly hold a young man's hand.
June 24, Lumen Field, Seattle. Bosnia had to beat Qatar, and win by a big enough margin.
In the 29th minute, Alajbegović curled a shot from outside the box into the far corner. At 18 years and 276 days, he became the youngest scorer from outside the box in World Cup history since records began in 1966. In the 34th minute, Qatari goalkeeper Abnuda deflected the ball into his own net. In the 42nd minute, Hassan Al-Haydos pulled one back for Qatar. Mahmic then sealed the score at 3-1. A win, but the math wasn't done yet.
The same day in Vancouver, Canada thrashed Qatar 6-0, boosting their goal difference to +5. Bosnia's? -1.
Final Group B standings: Switzerland 7 pts +4, Canada 4 pts +5, Bosnia 4 pts -1, Qatar 1 pt -8. Bosnia finished third. The expanded 48-team format saved them. The top two from each of the 12 groups advance directly, plus the 8 best third-placed teams. Bosnia's 4 points were enough. They will likely face host nation USA in the Round of 32.
Barbarez said before the tournament: "We are a small country. This is our second ever World Cup and for sure we are sort of an underdog in many of the matches."
The Round of 32 awaits them, probably against the USA. 24 players who have never played in a World Cup, plus a 54-year-old rookie who walked from the poker table to the coaching bench. Time to calculate the odds on this hand.