Suriname are on the brink of something extraordinary. Beat El Salvador this week and they will take a big step towards World Cup qualification and could yet become the lowest-ranked team to achieve that feat since such rankings were invented.

North Korea were ranked 105 going into the 2010 World Cup. Suriname are ranked 126 in the world but are climbing. This nation of a little over 600,000 people - only Iceland among nations to have played at a World Cup has a smaller population - is on the up.

Brian Tevreden, Suriname's general manager, can only smile when asked what all this means to the people. "It is like a fairytale," he tells Sky Sports . "Everywhere you go people are talking about it. You feel the excitement, the pressure, the tension in the air."

He adds: "Tickets for the El

See Full Page