serbia

World Cup appearances: 11
Best World Cup: Fourth Place; 1930 & 1962
FIFA World Ranking: 16
Manager: Radomir Antic
Captain: Dejan Stankovic

Serbia Team Profile

The Serbians used to be one of thee feared footballing nations when the World Cup was first introduced to the scene, earning a respectable fourth place finish in the very first World Cup back in 1930 before a successful run of attempts during the 50′s, finishing as Quarter-Finalists in 1954 & 1958 before falling at the Semi-Final stage once again in 1962, once again finishing as the fourth best side in the finals. However, they haven’t since been anywhere near as prolific and since the 60′s Serbia have only qualified for four finals, five if you include their successful campaign to reach South Africa this year, when they were previously know as Yugoslavia.

Serbia’s most recent appearance in a World Cup was that of 2006 when the Serbian’s couldn’t manage a single point during their three group games, finishing bottom of what proved out to be a very tough group of Holland, Argentina & Ivory Coast. However, it was against Argentina where Serbia got the most limelight, all of it unwanted though, when Serbia crashed to their highest International defeat after a 6-0 mauling at the hands of the Argentine’s. That humiliating defeat also featured the goal of the tournament as Argentina toyed with Serbia with inch perfect passes before Cambiasso slammed home his driven shot. They then went on to lose their last group game 3-2 with the then new boys, Ivory Coast.

Nickname: Belo Orlovi (White Eagles)

Serbia Key Players

Dejan Stankovic

We’ll be honest enough to say that not too many of the Serbian full-timers ring any bells but Stankovic has caught out eye on more than one occasion during his time at Italian giants, Inter Milan. The playmaker has a tonne of experience, winning experience at that, and has won no less than 14 honours during his six year spell at the club. However, while he plays a more offensive role for Inter Milan, Stankovic tends to play the anchorman for his country due to Serbia’s lack of quality in the midfield. He does, however, have one lethal shot on him and you’ll often see clips of Stankovic scoring 30 yard+ efforts. The Serbia captain has great on-the-ball vision and can pick out an inch perfect pass. He is Serbia’s main source of creativity and attack builder but he’s not getting any younger at 31 years-of-age.

Nemanja Vidic

This guy has come on leaps and bounds since joining English club, Manchester United, back in 2006. His tough, physical style of defending has earned him plaudits from across the European continent and will have plenty of admirers back home in England. Vidic is extremely strong in the air, a great tackler of the ball but, more importantly, has this unique ability to instantaneously read the play. Considering Serbia will spend most of their games on the back foot, the form of Vidic in South Africa will be crucial in how Serbia fare this summer in terms of keeping some of the bigger nations out. Moreover, Vidic is a real goal threat from set-plays and has scored all of his nine Manchester United goals from set-pieces.

Strengths

The Serb’s aren’t a side we’ve watched all too often but the basic make-up of their team looks very solid. Their centre-back pairing of Vidic (Man Utd) & Branislav Ivanovic (Chelsea), whom both have plenty of first-class experience, is a big asset for Serbian manager, Radomir Antic, while Stankovic & Milias look a decent midfield pairing, especially when going forward. We feel their biggest danger factor will be from set-pieces as they pack a punch in the height department, with the likes of Vidic, Ivanovic & Nikola Zigic all climbing above most defenders in terms of natural height. Their main striker is Valencia forward Zigic, of whom is a big aerial specialist for club and country.

Weaknesses

Serbia do look a little too one dimensional, with height their only real asset. They do have a number of players who do pose some form of danger when going forward but they do and will rely heavily on set-pieces we feel, especially against the nations which get the ball down and play proper, on the floor, football. They are fortunate in that their centre-backs are world class but that’s as good as it gets in our eyes and they’ll need their defence to be in top form throughout the tournament if they are to surpass their previous ever best performance of fourth place.

Serbia Qualification for the World Cup

Sector: European
Group: 1
Position: 1st
Win-Draw-Lose: 7-1-2
Goals Scored: 22
Goals Conceded: 8

Serbia finished qualification as Group 7 winners, fending off the challenges from France & Austria. In all fairness, their group was an easy one on paper but they performed brilliantly to finisher higher than the 1998 winners of the World Cup, France. They lost just two qualifiers along the way, whilst managing a decent +14 goal difference – 5 more than France, a team touted as having more chance this summer then the Serb’s. However, this may also be because Serbia didn’t beat France during qualifying, losing 2-1 in Paris & only managing a 1-1 draw on their own soil.

Milan Jovanovic, a Standard Liege player who is attracting plenty of interest from some of Europe’s top clubs, was Serbia’s more prolific goalscorer during qualifying, scoring 5 goals.

World Cup Potential: 3/5

Serbia are a very solid outfit and do have plenty of class in defence. This alone should stand them in good stead and make them a tough opponent to beat. However, the doubts are over whether the Serbian forwards, who haven’t exactly excelled in recent years, can score enough goals on the biggest stage. The World Cup is a pressured environment and we don’t think the Serb’s will be used to this type of expectation and demand. Still, they do have the potential to be an ‘awkward’ side and they have every chance of causing some sort of an upset.

Serbia World Cup Betting Odds

Serbia to win the World Cup: 225/1 bWin

Before the World Cup the odds on Serbia were 80/1 

Official Serbia World Cup Squad

Goalkeepers

Vladimir Stojkovic (Wigan Athletic)

Bojan Isailovic (Zaglebie Lubin)

Andjelko Djuricic (Uniao Leiria)

Defenders

Branislav Ivanovic (Chelsea)

Antonio Rukavina (1860 Munich)

Nemanja Vidic (Manchester United)

Neven Subotic (Borussia Dortmund)

Aleksandar Lukovic (Udinese)

Ivan Obradovic (Real Zaragoza)

Aleksandar Kolarov (Lazio Roma)

Midfielders

Dejan Stankovic (Inter Milan)

Nenad Milijas (Wolverhampton Wanderers)

Milos Krasic (CSKA Moscow)

Milan Jovanovic (Standard Liege)

Milos Ninkovic (Dynamo Kiev)

Zdravko Kuzmanovic (VfB Stuttgart )

Zoran Tosic (Cologne)

Gojko Kacar (Hertha BSC Berlin )

Radosav Petrovic (Partizan Belgrade)

Strikers

Nikola Zigic (Valencia )

Marko Pantelic (Ajax Amstedam)

Danko Lazovic (Zenit St. Petersburg)

Dragan Mrdja (Vojvodina Novi Sad)

last update: 18 June 2010

World Cup 2010 Serbia Fixtures – Group D

World Cup Group D - Table

World Cup Fixtures and Results

World Cup Group of Serbia

After a weekend of intense qualifiers, we have eight new teams joining the 11 that had already qualified for South Africa. Ivory Coast, Germany, Denmark, Serbia, Italy, Chile, Mexico & USA are the nations that booked their spot in next summers show-piece over the weekend, but none have made such an impact as the frontrunners in the market remaining pretty much the same, and the prices haven’t altered too much, either.

From Europe; Denmark, Germany, Italy & Serbia, all make the South African fold, with a qualifier to spare, and the preparations will now begin for all of the above as they seek out the World Cup crown.

Out of the recent European qualifiers, Germany lead in the market but they’re still consider slight outsiders at 11/1 with WilliamHill, while Italy, the defending World champions, are currently 13/1 with PaddyPower to successfully defend their title.

Denmark, despite secure qualification fairly comfortably, are as big as 80/1 with Coral, with their inconsistent nature in major tournaments one of the reasons for such a big price. Serbia, however, have been given slightly more respect by the bookies and are a best priced 66/1 with Ladbrokes to spring a shock in Africa.

The Ivory Coast became just the second African nation to qualify for the finals, although three if you count the hosts, South Africa. They cruised through qualification and their abundance of power, strength and class, makes them a very dangerous opponent indeed. Didier Drogba finished as top scorer for Ivory Coast and they’re 40/1 with Bet365 to go all the way in just their second World Cup.

Chile were the third nation from the South American continent to book their tickets to South Africa after thumping Colombia 4-2 on Saturday night. Chile beat the likes of Argentina, Uruguay & Ecuador to qualification but they still find themselves as un-fancied outsiders at 66/1 with VictorChandler & WilliamHill.

From the CONCACAF zone, both the United States and Mexico surprised no one by qualifying after the pair both recorded victories over the weekend to secure their berth into South Africa. USA have always been a difficult opponent once they have made the competition proper and, at odds of 125/1 with Coral, could be a decent value punt. Mexico, however, struggled on occasions whilst qualifying and, although their price is a tad bit shorter at 100/1 with Coral, they don’t appear to have much chance of being the surprise package this summer with youth and immaturity their burden at this moment in time.

World Cup Outright Odds:

Spain – 5/1 WilliamHill

Brazil – 5/1 PaddyPower

England – 7/1 Coral

Argentina – 11/1 BlueSquare

Germany – 11/1 WilliamHill

Holland – 12/1 SkyBet

Italy – 13/1 PaddyPower

France – 25/1 Coral

Portugal – 33/1 WilliamHill

40/1 Bar The Rest

GROUP SEVEN

Group Seven has seen the confidence rise in the abilities of the Serbians, who are unexpectedly giving the French more than a run for their money. In fact, the Serbs have all but secured their place in next year’s World Cup, while France are probably going to have to rely on a play-off to get to South Africa 2010. This has not been the most thrilling group to watch, as aside from the top two teams, the quality has been a bit substandard, and the fact that points have been taken off each other, including the Faroe Islands getting in on the action highlights that. By far the most interesting aspect has been the battle for the top spot, with France failing to make an impact in the all important previous game between the top two sides. It is all to play for on Saturday, when the group could actually be settled.

World Cup Qualification Europe Group 7

Remaining Fixtures
Austria v Lithuania
Serbia v Romania
France v Faroe Islands

October 14th
France v Austria
Romania v Faroe Island
Lithuania v Serbia

SERBIA
Despite not having beaten France themselves, Serbia have still managed to open up a four point lead over their more famous European counterparts, and can seal the group on Saturday. A win would put the equation beyond all doubt, and getting that win against Romania that shouldn’t be too much problem, as the Romanians are nothing like the force they used to be. In fact, Serbia beat them away 3-2 earlier in the year, after being 2-0 ahead at half time. Getting to South Africa 2010, will give the Serbians a chance to show the world how much they have progressed after a disappointing last World Cup, when they lost all three of their group games. They could be at the top more to France undoing themselves, than being the better team, but they have the edge in the group, and that is all that matters at this stage of qualification.
Serbia to win: 4/7 at SkyBet
Draw: 3/1 at Bet365
Romania to win: 23/4 at Expekt

FRANCE
It would be a strange World Cup 2010 without the French in attendance, and that is a possibility after they have had a less than impressive qualifying campaign, and it is the matches which have slipped through their fingers and ended up in draws, which have been their undoing. They didn’t start the campaign well with a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Austria, and two subsequent draws against Romania, and one in their most recent game against Serbia has seen the gap between them and Serbia widen. They are the only team to beat Serbia in qualifying, but Serbia’s persistence in grinding out results has kept the French down. They do need to win both games to be within a chance of claiming top spot, but they would need Serbia to not pick up a win. The French have an easy next game, one would think, against the Faroe Islands, but the last meeting between the two teams only ended in a 1-0 win for the French. Should they fail to win that game somehow, it could open the door for Austria to sneak into second place.
France to win: 1/100 at Paddy Power
Draw: 20/1 at Bet365
Faroe Islands: 100/1 at Coral

AUSTRIA
Had a strange start to their campaign, when they beat the French comfortably, lost to Lithuania and then only tied with the Faroe Islands. They have picked up their qualifying game a little since then though, and if they could have beaten Romania in their last game, then they would really have put the French under pressure. The best scenario which they could hope for, is that the Faroe Islands hold the French to a draw on Saturday, while Austria beat Lithuania. This would close the gap to two points, and make the France v Austria game on Wednesday, a one game shoot out for the runner’s-up spot.
Austria to win: 4/5 at 888Sport
Draw: 11/4 at Coral
Lithuania to win: 18/5 at Expekt

LITHUANIA
Probably won’t be very happy about the fact that they lost to the Faroe Islands, otherwise they would have been in a stronger position than Austria. Anyway, they have lost their last four games in a row now, despite showing a little early promise in the qualifying campaign. They can easily spoil Austria’s already slim hopes of sneaking into the play-off spot, who they have already beaten 2-0, and could potentially end up in a credible third spot.

ROMANIA
Seems to be sliding backwards, and not anywhere near the quality that made them entertaining in World Cups and European Championships. When your top scorer in qualifying only has two goals, then it’s clear where problems lie. They have a good history on international level, but they are not going to South Africa 2010, with only two wins under their qualification belt.

FAROE ISLANDS
Out of all the minnows in European qualifying, the Faroe Islands actually have not been overwhelmed in any of their games. They have held both Serbia and France to low scoring games, and managed to turn over Lithuania for a famous and rare international win. They will probably be fairly happy with their four accumulated points and could get something else in the bag when they face Romania on Wednesday. Their next game against France should be a foregone conclusion in Saint-Denis, as Thierry Henry and co, need a good win.

WHAT IS LIKELY TO HAPPEN
France will beat the Faroe Islands on Saturday, but Serbia, who they are chasing for the top spot, will also get a positive result at home against Romania. That will settle the group and mean that all of Wednesday’s games in Group 7 will just be a formality. Serbia will have won the group, with France having secured their runner’s-up place.

TO WIN GROUP SEVEN
Serbia – 1/8 at Bet365
France – 11/2 at Totesport

Group 7

Although Serbia were touted as a potential qualifiers from group 7, no one would have predicted the Serbians would win six of their seven qualifiers to date. The Serbians have won five of their previous seven games with their only defeat coming in France. Speaking of the devil, the group favourites find themselves in a very precarious position. The French may occupy second position but they appear to have very little chance of finishing in first and may have to overcome a two-legged affair if they wish to reach their qualifying objective.

The fight for second spot is too close to call. France have the advantage but a slim one at that. Lithuania trail the French by two points while Austria and Romania need some big victories to keep their South African hopes alive. The pair are three points behind France in fourth and fifth respectively but they both have to play France, albeit on French terrain.

You would fancy Serbia to go on and win enough games from here on out and book their ticket to South Africa so it will be a four way contest for second place. You would like to tout France as the favourites but they’ve been very poor thus far and wouldn’t be too hopeful of their chances. The again, both Austria and Romania have been far from impressive so it could be a case of who gets the rub of the green.

Key Game: 09/09/2009 – Serbia V France

Group 7 Matches:

12/08/2009 – Faroe Islands V France
05/09/2009 – Austria V Faroe Islands
05/09/2009 – France V Romania
09/09/2009 – Faroe Islands V Lithuania
09/09/2009 – Romania V Austria
09/09/2009 – Serbia V France
10/10/2009 – Austria V Lithuania
10/10/2009 – Serbia V Romania
10/10/2009 – France V Faroe Islands
14/10/2009 – France V Austria
14/10/2009 – Romania V Faroe Islands
14/10/2009 – Lithuania V Serbia

World Cup Qualification Europe Group 7