Serbia and England are set to meet in their first match of UEFA EURO 2024 Group C at Arena AufSchalke on Sunday 16th June.
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Serbia and England are meeting for the first time since Serbia became an independent nation.
Gareth Southgate should be mindful of their aerial prowess since a third of their 15 qualifying goals were headers.
England were runners up to Italy at EURO 2020 due to a disappointing penalty shoot out. However, England have lost only one of their last 18 games excluding their defeat to Italy in the EURO 2020 final. They have won 10 games, drawn 7 and lost one.
Expectations are very high for England because they have Bayern striker Harry Kane, Real Madrid marvel Jude Bellingham and Manchester City's Phil Foden.
However, England will be on the look out for forward Aleksander Mitrovic who scored plenty of premier league goals for Newcastle and Fulham, Dusan Tadic, who spent several years at Southampton and Juventus ace Dusan Vlahovic.
In the last six fixtures in all competitions, Serbia have won twice, lost three times and settled for a draw once.
England have also won twice, drawn twice and lost twice in their last six fixtures.
Under Southgate's management, England have won all three of their opening games in tournaments.
Dragan Stojkovic, the Serbia coach, said the following;
This qualification has been long awaited. There were many missed opportunities in the past. But this time, the goal that I set for myself as a head coach – and which was set by the Serbian FA – has been fulfilled. The road to success is never easy. But for our country, nation and the fans – and everyone who loves this game – qualifying in itself was a huge step forward.
Gareth Southgate, the England coach, also said the following;
I'm excited by the challenge of trying to do something that no England team have ever done. We've never won a European Championship. We've never won a tournament away from home. We've never been to a final away from home. A lot of people seem to feel that this could be an easy procession for us. The fact that it's never been done before highlights to me that this is going to be extremely difficult and we've got to be perfect to achieve it.
Possible line-ups
Serbia: V Milinkovic-Savic, Milenkovic, Veljkovic, Pavlovic, Zivkovic, S Milinkovic-Savic, Lukic, Kostic, Tadic Mitrovic, Vlahovic
England: Pickford, Walker, Stones, Guehi, Trippier, Alexander-Arnold, Rice, Saka, Bellingham, Foden, Kane
Serbia are something of an unknown quantity for England but if they manage to subdue Serbia’s dangerous front men Mitrovic, Vlahovic and Tadic, it should provide the platform for their own attacking talents to secure the victory.
