On Sunday the Estádio da Luz in Lisbon will be packed to the rafters for the Euro 2016 qualifier between the Seleção and Serbia. Victory for Portugal will put Fernando Santos’s team top of Group I and well placed to qualify automatically for the tournament in France.
But Serbia, with just one point to their name, will be desperate to get something from the match. With the aid of SerbianFooty, PortuGOAL brings you the low-down on Portugal’s opponents.
PortuGOAL: Ones to watch - who are Serbia’s star players?
The guys to watch for Serbia are players that most football fans are familiar with. Ivanovic and Matic from Chelsea, Kolarov from Manchester City, Markovic from Liverpool and Tadic from Southampton.
PortuGOAL: Strong points/weak points. What must Portugal beware of and what can they exploit?
Serbia's strong point is Aleksandar Kolarov's deadly set pieces. Kolarov and Ivanovic are also very good at going forward from the back and cause teams all kinds of problems. The speed of Lazar Markovic and Zoran Tosic combined with the skill of Dusan Tadic in midfield can also be very dangerous but they have lacked consistency so far. As for weak points, Serbia's central defence is full of injuries and is really inexperienced. We also tend to lose the ball a lot and lack a proven goalscorer upfront.
PortuGOAL: Formation and playing style – what system do Serbia usually play? Would you describe them generically as an attacking or a defensive team?
Well, Serbia has a brand new coach Radovan Curcic who will coach his first qualifier versus Portugal so it's hard to predict what system he will play. Curcic is considered a strong defensive coach who knows how to organize a side so I'd guess we will try to play that style. Under former manager Dick Advocaat the team played terribly, they sat back too much, weren’t organised and basically waited for the other team to score.
PortuGOAL: As Portuguese fans and particularly Benfica fans know first-hand, Serbia have some incredible talent in their squad, but the team have just one point from three games, having not yet played Portugal or Denmark away. What's gone wrong in this campaign so far and is there belief in Serbia that they can still qualify?
Dick Advocaat was a terrible choice for manager. He did not seem to actually know much about our players and made some random call-ups and line-up selections. His tactics were also highly questionable. The players deserve some blame as well, since they put in some bad performances and have failed to play together as a team. Most people don’t believe that the team will qualify after such a disastrous start.
PortuGOAL: Mood in the camp – judging by player/coach quotes regarding this game, do you think Serbia come into it in a confident frame of mind?
I think that the players really like the new manager since a lot of them have played for him previously. They are really looking forward to starting a new chapter. Also Serbia isn’t that far behind from a top three spot so they are still motivated to try and qualify.
PortuGOAL: What do you think the result of the game will be?
I think it will end in a hard-fought 1-1 draw, Serbia and Portugal have a history of playing close games
Our thanks to Milos. For more from him and news on Serbian Football follow @SerbianFooty on twitter.
