World Cup 2014: England game gives Montenegro chance to punch above their weight They go into their fourth such fixture in three years on Friday having never lost one, fortified with the knowledge that whenever they do fall behind against the English - 1-0 down in Podgorica in March; 2-0 two years ago - they always come back. The David-against-Goliath aspect to this record is easily emphasised: A simple demographic comparison of the two countries, or by calculating the relative earnings of, say, Wayne Rooney, of Manchester United, and the Montenegro centre-forward, Andrija Delibasic, currently without a club contract after a spell wondering if he was going to be paid at all at debt-ridden Rayo Vallecano, in Spain. But, within Montenegrin football, you also hear the case put strongly that stressing their limited resources is misguided, that this is a region where punching above its weight in its favourite sport is assumed, a tradition. The point is put by Pedja Mijatovic, one of a clutch of former players now in their 40s for whom Montenegrin independence came too late to grant the opportunity of representing their small homeland rather than the larger federations of Yugoslavia, or later, Serbia and Montenegro. Mijatovic played for Real Madrid and Fiorentina, among others, and scored the goal which won Madrid's first European Cup for 32 years in 1998. Back then, he says, the idea of a Montenegro XI, of standing in line hearing their own anthem, competing uniquely for a place at a European championship or World Cup finals, seemed distant. It was not really even a question. We formed part of Yugoslavia, and we had to find our way as individuals in that set-up. But in my generation, we Montenegrins did that very successfully. Indeed, through the 1990s, a pair of Montenegrin players were influencing the outcome of club football's principal competition more often than several dozen English footballers were. Besides Mijatovic at Madrid, there was AC Milan's Dejan Savicevic, whose creative brilliance would illuminate the 1994 Champions League final, Milan 4, Barcelona 0. The 2013 Montenegro has its pair of standouts, too, the Juventus forward Mirko Vucinic, whose fitness for Friday is in serious doubt, and Manchester City's Stevan Jovetic. "Maybe people talk about Vucinic and Jovetic too much," says Mijatovic, "because there are quite a few others, including some strong young players, in the squad. We have always had lots of ability coming through, and produced players with ambition. A degree of nationalism, felt vividly in citizens who have a fresh memory of going to the polls to decide on their independence, has clearly been stimulating for Montenegro, as it has been for several post-Yugoslavia teams. Croatia won a bronze medal at their first ever World Cup, in 1998; Slovenia have been the smallest country of the 32 finalists at two of the last three World Cups. Bosnia-Herzegovina, most deeply affected by the violence of the 1990s Balkans conflict, waited longer for its football team to yield a peace dividend, but, sitting top of their qualifying group ahead of this week's matches, there is genuine expectation Bosnia can progress a step further than the play-off defeats which kept them from Euro 2012 and South Africa 2010. Still, that Montenegro, a fifth of the size of Bosnia, go into the last pair of fixtures of only their second World Cup qualifying campaign a point off the lead of Group H, is startling. "Sometimes it is hard to remember we have really just begun from what was our Year Zero," says Mijatovic. In terms of strengthening the clubs and stadiums there is work still to do. The talent will keep emerging because football is our number one sport. What the players need is a good competitive local league. That may be developing, albeit incognito. The few hundred at Petrovac's quaint arena yesterday, witnesses to a 2-0 home win, saw Mogren sacrifice the First League's only remaining unbeaten record.