Not for the first time in its history, political events have more or less completely overshadowed Yugoslav football during the past 12 months with three of their six scheduled European Championship qualifiers postponed.
One of the games affected by NATO's military action against the Serbian government was, of course, this one and the result has been a fixture pile-up for both nations heading into the last six weeks or so of the competition's group stages.
Within the Yugoslav FA, though, it has also been an unsettled year with Milan Zivadinovic becoming the second manager in less than a year to depart the scene in controversial circumstances.
Installed to provide continuity after Slobodan Santrac left the job at the end of the World Cup, Zivadinovic was widely criticised for taking an extended summer holiday when many within the association felt he should have been working with his players to prepare for the current series of games.
He was also believed to have been negotiating with a Middle Eastern association to move there when his contract expired and, complaining that if this were the case he could hardly be focused on the task of getting his current side to next summer's Euro 2000 finals, the FA forced his resignation.
The Yugoslavs were somewhat disappointed with only reaching the second round of the World Cup last summer but could have few complaints about their exit at the hands of a fine Dutch side.
During Zivadinovic's time in charge the team continued to perform consistently, beating Ireland and Malta (twice) in European Championship qualifiers, drawing friendlies against Brazil and Switzerland while losing only away to an Israeli side that has only been beaten on home soil once in the last five years.
Under new boss Vujadin Boskov there has only been one outing, the recent nil all draw with arch rivals Croatia but there was little to suggest any great shift in approach. With Ivica Kralj, the team's regular goalkeeper since before France unavailable, Aleksandar Kocic was drafted in but in the outfield there were the same old big names, the same old running game based on overwhelming opponents with fast, skilful running and passing.
This evening, away from home, there is little reason to suspect that there will be anything terribly different. Since last summer Lazio midfielder Dejan Stankovic and left-sided defender Jovan Stankovic of Real Mallorca have nailed down regular places in the side and there has been a bit of tinkering with the idea of a third man up front.
Yesterday when his team trained in Dublin, Boskov hinted that, with the possible exception of the Mallorca defender he would stick to the general pattern with what was being described as a 431/2 21/2 formation being mentioned.
One of the two and a half strikers, Savo Milosevic, bemoaned the fact that the players rather than the politicians had been made to pay for what had gone on in the country over the past few years but, for all the turbulence of the past year and in spite of the ongoing trouble within their country, the side remains a force to be reckoned with and the players are determined to qualify for another major championship finals.
