Last World Cup: First time qualifiers
Nickname: Dragons, Golden Lilies
Coach: Safet Susic
Star man: Edin Dzeko
Tournament best: Never qualified

The nation born out of the break-up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s is heading into uncharted territory. They will rely heavily on the Champions League experience of Manchester City striker Dzeko and midfielders Miralem Pjanic and captain Emir Spahic while in Asmir Begovic they have a top-class goalkeeper.

Strengths: Bosnia's impressive record in qualifying surprised many, scoring three or more goals in over half their matches and never conceding more than once. They showed a steely resilience both in defending leads, which they did flawlessly, and in recovering from going behind where they clawed back a greater share of points than all but two fellow finalists.

Weaknesses: Their attack could be accused of lacking variety however, with few goals from set pieces or long range, and often took a while to get going. The lack of variety extends to personnel: no nation relied more heavily on their top three goalscorers, who converted 77% of their goals between them, which suggests that any attacking injuries or suspensions could be keenly felt.

Prospects: It will be fascinating to see how one of Europe's emerging teams deals with the threat of Argentina, who themselves have been ruthless at defending leads and conduct the bulk of their goalscoring from the centre where Bosnia's defence is weakest. Elsewhere in the group they look well equipped to deal with Iran's numerous forays down the right, having conceded no qualifying goals from this area.