When the Ramble spoke to Bosnia’s Miralem Pjanic last year, before the first of his country’s two Euro 2012 qualifiers against France – where he has lived since the age of 12 – he spoke of the “special occasion” that playing Les Bleus in the nation that has become his home would represent. If the singular air of determination about the midfielder hinted he saw it as more than simply an emotional moment, few outside the Bosnian camp would have shared his conviction that France could be bested over the course of a whole qualifying campaign.

They might now. Come Tuesday night in the Stade de France there will be no Franck Ribéry, Karim Benzema, Bacary Sagna, Kevin Gameiro or Philippe Mexès (the latter just coming back from a serious knee injury suffered in spring, while still at Roma) for starters. It’s almost enough to make Laurent Blanc recall his debut as France coach in Norway last August, when he was compelled to pick a squad shorn of all its World Cup participants, who had been at the centre of the ‘Bus of Shame’ incident.

As the excellent Matt Spiro wrote from Paris on Thursday, France are susceptible to nerves ahead of tonight’s (Friday) game with Albania and Tuesday’s climax. They may be handily placed but it has escaped nobody in France that 18 years ago, the French needed a point from two home games against Israel and Bulgaria to qualify for USA ’94 under Gérard Houllier – and lost them both.

Yet if the opportunity beckons for Safet Susic’s side, a considerable test of nerve awaits them in Paris. An expected victory over Luxembourg in Zenica tonight (Friday) would guarantee Bosnia a top-two finish, and at worst a slot in November’s play-offs. They would be keen to avoid those as they strive for a maiden major championship finals qualification, especially bearing in mind their agonising failure to reach World Cup 2010 via the same route.

Despite being under pressure from Portugal for much of the World Cup play-off first leg 23 months back, Bosnia had their fair share of chances at the Estádio da Luz to take a positive result back to Zenica. As it was, the opportunity came and went on that night in Lisbon, when Edin Dzeko and Vedad Ibisevic hit the woodwork within seconds of one another in the closing stages. Bosnia were a pale photostat of their best selves in front of their own fans, and Portugal progressed with greater comfort than might have initially been anticipated.

If Bosnia’s ability to cope with an occasion is in question, their talent certainly is not. As well as Pjanic’s prompting and the goals of Dzeko and the returning Ibisevic, Susic can count on solidity at the back from Sevilla’s Emir Spahic and Stoke’s superb goalkeeper Asmir Begovic. The real boost is the continuing rehabilitation of Zvjezdan Misimovic after the playmaker’s nightmare spell at Galatasaray, following a spectacular bust-up with then-coach Gheorghe Hagi. Now at Dinamo Moscow, Misimovic is gradually recovering the form that saw him propel Wolfsburg to the 2010 Bundesliga, alongside Dzeko. It was Misimovic’s late goal that beat nine-man Belarus last month when it looked as if Bosnia were set to blow it.

This unexpected chance has arisen after their Gallic rivals pegged back by a draw against Romania at the same time, on a surface at Bucharest’s new National Stadium that made Wembley circa spring 2010 look like a snooker table. Blanc’s men may have been grateful to get anything from such an unpredictable situation, but they now have little margin for error. As the often-prickly Stade de France crowd is still learning to trust its national team again after the misery of South Africa and the years leading up to it, Bosnia will find the home side have plenty of their own concerns if they can deal with their jitters.

A few thousand Bosnian fans will descend on the scene of France’s greatest triumph with a right to hope for that something special that Pjanic is looking forward to – with friend of this column, Bosnian football journalist Sasa Ibrulj (@sasaibrulj) among them. Whether it’s by winning the group or via the play-offs, Euro 2012 would be a much richer tournament for the presence of Bosnia.