Two-time runners-up of the European Championships in 1960 and 1968 during their Yugoslavia days, Serbia are making a debut of sorts at this year’s edition, having never before qualified for the quadrennial continental gathering as an independent nation.
Led by head coach Dragan Stojkovic – regarded as one of the finest talents to ever don the Serbia strip – the Eagles recorded a mixed bag of qualifying results with just four wins from their eight contests, but their 14-point total was enough for a runners-up finish behind Hungary.
Serbia’s results in the preliminary section did at least follow a consistent pattern – they did the double over Lithuania and Montenegro, drew twice with Bulgaria and suffered a pair of defeats to the Hungarians – thereby ending a 24-year exile from the Euros since Yugoslavia’s run to the quarters in 2000.
Brimming with recognisable names in the final third, including Juventus hitman Dusan Vlahovic, Ajax cult hero Dusan Tadic and Al-Hilal pairing Sergej Milinkovic-Savic and Aleksandar Mitrovic, Serbia’s recent form has not left much to write home about, only amassing four wins from their last 11 contests.
However, two of those successes have come in their last three friendly battles, as they sunk Cyprus 1-0 towards the end of March courtesy of a solitary strike from Milinkovic-Savic, before falling short in a 2-1 loss to Ralf Rangnick’s Austria at the start of the month.
Those mistakes were quickly rectified in their final warm-up friendly, though, as Milinkovic-Savic was on target once more – alongside two members of the old guard in Tadic and Mitrovic – in a 3-0 success over Sweden, their first win by at least a three-goal margin since before the 2022 World Cup.
Fewer than three full years have passed since England exploded into ecstasy as one at Wembley, where Luke Shaw’s tidy back-post volley sent the nation on their way to a long-awaited slice of European glory, before the Italian old guard inflicted more penalty heartbreak on the crestfallen hosts.
Despite renewed criticism of his tactical approach and brief talk of interest from Manchester United – which has now died down due to Erik ten Hag’s stay of execution – Gareth Southgate continues to bark orders from the England touchline and navigated an unbeaten qualification period in the wake of an all-too familiar quarter-final elimination at the 2022 World Cup.
Two revenge wins over reigning champions Italy were among England’s six preliminary successes, but the Three Lions may have had their pre-tournament favourites label ripped off them if recent exploits are anything to go by, as Southgate has masterminded just one win from five.
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Even that success – a 3-0 beating of Bosnia-Herzegovina – was a tedious affair until the hour mark, and more Iceland-inflicted misery followed in a 1-0 loss to their Euro 2016 conquerors at Wembley, where 90 minutes of huffing and puffing counted for nought due to a severe lack of killer instinct.
Such attacking deficiencies also proved costly when Brazil arrived at Wembley in March and left with a 1-0 success to their name, courtesy of a strike from Real Madrid-bound teenager Endrick, before a last-minute Jude Bellingham intervention salvaged a 2-2 draw with Belgium.
Of course, Southgate chopped and changed his selection over the course of the friendly period, and not since their Euro 2004 opener against France have England – who tackle Serbia for the first time since the breakup of Yugoslavia – been beaten in the group stages, but even that statistic may not comfort the glass-half-empty brigade.
