Two nations who made the perfect start to World Cup qualifying meet in Zenica on Monday night when Bosnia-Herzegovina host Cyprus.

There were no great shocks as Cyprus beat San Marino on Friday to go top of the section, but Bosnia pulled off an excellent result in winning away to Romania.

Match preview

Comfortably the most surprising result from Friday's matches was Bosnia's win in Bucharest, with Sergej Barbarez's men making the perfect start to qualifying.

Bosnia had not won in any of their previous 12 games, losing 10, starting the match as the outsiders, but Armin Gigovic's early strike settled the encounter in favour of the Dragons.

That result may give the Bosnian people some hope for the year ahead, after a woeful performance in qualifying for Euro 2024, and a UEFA Nations League campaign where they were utterly out of their depth.

Bosnia were relegated from League A in the autumn, failing to win any of their six matches, conceding 17 goals in the process, and ignoring their two wins against Liechtenstein in Euro 2024 qualifying, they lost seven of their eight matches.

Liechtenstein were the only team who finished below Bosnia in that section, with the Dragons even finishing a hefty eight points behind Luxembourg, illustrating just how far they have fallen a decade on from reaching the World Cup.

Bosnia won their first match in Euro 2024 qualifying against Iceland, so few will be getting carried away at this moment, but it does give them a platform to build on, ahead of facing a nation they sit 56 places above in the FIFA rankings.

Cyprus did shock them here in 2014 though, in what was the first meeting between the sides, and the visitors won the last encounter too, 3-2 in Nicosia in 2017, despite going 2-0 down early on.

Manager Akis Mantzios will be seeking a repeat of that, with Cyprus entering matchday two top of the group, following a 2-0 win over San Marino on Friday.

Anything but a win would have been catastrophic for the Cypriots, but those three points mean they have already outperformed their tally from Euro 2024 qualifying.

That was under Temuri Ketsbaia, who massively underperformed in the role, and was eventually dismissed during their Nations League campaign in the autumn.

Sofronis Avgousti was appointed to replace him, but quit after just two months to take over at Apollon Limassol, so Friday night's win was Mantzios's first game in charge.

With Austria, Romania and upcoming opponents Bosnia in the group, it is unlikely Cyprus will stay top for much longer, but if they can find a first away qualifying win in over half a decade, it will certainly put the cat among the pigeons in Group H.

For that to happen, they will have to improve greatly on their performances in Euro qualifying and the Nations League, where they lost all eight matches in the former, and suffering thrashings home and away to Romania and Kosovo in the latter.

Bosnia-Herzegovina possible starting lineup:

Vasilj; Dedic, Radeljic, Barisic, Kolasinac; Tahirovic, Sunjic, Gigovic; Demirovic, Dzeko, Memic

Cyprus possible starting lineup:

Mall; Satsias, Sielis, Panagiotou, Anderson Correia; Loizou, Kousoulos, Kyprianou, Kastanos; Pittas, Sotiriou