Here’s the line-up Antić used:

Stojković
Ivanović – Subotić – Luković – Obradović
Kačar – Petrović – Ninković
Krasić – Žigić – Jovanović

So, this was basically a 4-3-3 with Žigić up front, Krasić and Jovanović as wingers and Radoslav Petrović as a defensive midfielder. Antić didn’t have a full squad at his disposal, with Pantelić, Stanković, Kolarov and Milijaš being left behind and Janković and Vidić being injured. Therefore, Antić called-up some new faces, notably Radoslav Petrović of Partizan Belgrade, and gave a chance to Ninković, Kačar and Luković in the starting line-up.

The first half was goalless, however, and at half-time Zoran Tošić replaced Krasić, Kuzmanović stepped in instead of Kačar and Lazović filled the shoes of Jovanović. This has changed the formation somewhat, and also the result. “A living proof that you can advance by simply training with Alex Ferguson” – Zoran Tošić – scored two fabulous goals and Lazović scored another one, second for Serbia on the night. Players like Rukavina, Tomović and Milinković were also given some minutes at the very end and Serbia only conceded one goal, with Mphela’s strike in the 90′ minute giving the hosts a consolation goal. A splendid victory, really.

Dear South Africa – we hope to see you very soon. Victory against France and we can already book hotel rooms, let’s hope that Ribery, Henry & co. aren’t going to cancel our flights – after being so close, that would hurt very, very much.

Nikola Žigić (Racing Santander)
Marko Pantelić (Hertha Berlin)
Danko Lazović (PSV Eindhoven)
Miralem Sulejmani (Ajax)

There are two debutants in the team: Dynamo Kyiv’s Miloš Ninković, who already got a call during the previous qualifers but whose injury kept him from making his debut in the autumn and Borussia Dortmund’s Neven Subotić, a new and exciting additon to the team who only recently decided to play for Serbia instead of the United States, the country where has lived in large periods of his life and for who’s youth selections he’s already played for. These two players are definetely an excellent boost to our already talented team and I really can’t wait to see them in the red shirt (or white away shirt, actually). I just hope Antić integrates them well and the Sweden friendly will definetely give him the chance for that.

Oh, and, the U21 team also plays some friendlies with Ukraine and Romania, both played at home, but away from Belgrade, where all NT games are usually played. That would be a nice strategy to employ in the long-term, people outside of the capital are really frustrated because of the Belgrade-related football dominance at all levels, and the U21 games in Belgrade don’t really fill up stadiums anyway. The team itself is talented as always, with Zoran Tošić relegated from the senior NT, probably because of his lack of playing time at Manchester United, while the rest of the team is quite similar to the one that defeated Cyprus a month ago. Two victories perhaps shouldn’t be expected, but are definetely hoped for.

I’ll write a preview about the Romania game in the next few days. If you’re interested, I believe J at the Romania WCB might also give you an interesting perspective to the game. It promises to be a very tight encounter and will likely decide much of the fate of the Group 7, also featuring France, Austria, Lithuania and Faroe Islands.

Serbia played it’s first semi-final game against Cyprus using what could be considered the strongest available line-up. After some nervous first minutes, our team was on fire during the first half, playing some excellent attacking football and scoring two goals in the process with Milan Jovanović and Danko Lazović on the scoreboard. The second half definetely wasn’t so exciting, but Serbia played smart and defended well enough to prevent the Cypriots from getting back in the game. With Ukraine defeating Slovakia in the other semi-final, the stage was set for theoretically the most appealing final beetween Serbia and Ukraine.
The tournament format could definetely be described as strange at best, since the final game was played less than 24 hours after the semis and this is definetely not the kind of pressure that professional footballers should be used to have. Both Serbia and Ukraine had some tired players in the team, but since Radomir Antić used the best possible line-up in the previous game and didn’t really have enough replacements for them (especially in the forward department, where Lazović was our only natural striker), Serbia’s chances in the final were somewhat diminished. With the shape both teams were in, the game itself wasn’t such and exciting affair and was decided by a single Nazarenko wondergoal in the first half.

The U21 team defeated Cyprus 2:0 thanks to the goals by Marko Milinković and Milan Smiljanić. As I regretably couldn’t watch the game at all, I really couldn’t tell you much about the course of the game and the way our boys played. An away win, however, especially when accomplished without conceding and with a largely diminished squad (all the best players of the U21 played for the senior NT), really does say something positive in itself. The U21 has really spoilt us by now – nothing less would be satisfactory for the fans. I just hope they continue like this until the U21 Championship.

Goalkeepers:
Vladimir Stojković (Getafe), Vladimir Dišljenković (Metalurg Donetsk), Bojan Isailović (Čukarički)

Attackers:
Nikola Žigić (Racing Santander), Danko Lazović (PSV), Miralem Sulejmani (Ajax)

The U21 team also plays a friendly against Cyprus on wednesday at 14:00 CET. The European Championship is just a few months away and coach Slobodan Krčmarević needs to prepare the side properly in this year’s friendly games, create the basis of the team and incorporates some younger talented players previously uncapped for the U21 side. In doing this, the coach will have some problems and the biggest of them all is the fact that many of the star players also play for the senior side and are therefore unavailable for friendlies like this one. Ivan Obradović, Zoran Tošić, Miralem Sulejmani and Igor Đurić got a call by Antić and the first three of them are almost certain to actually play for the senior side, while there are also a lot of players missing for various reasons. All in all, it should be an interesting test for the ambitious U21 side, featuring four debutants: Slavko Perović of Red Star, Nemanja Tomić of Partizan, Aleksandar Ignjovski of OFK Belgrade and Aleksandar Ignjatović of Borac Čačak. Here’s the full squad list:

Goalkeepers:
Bojan Šaranov, Željko Brkić

Attackers:
Rade Veljović, Slavko Perović, Danijel Aleksić

I will write the reports on the matches, probably after the U21 game on wednesday. One other thing, it has been revealed that Žigić and Luković are set to miss the tournament (altough Luković travelled with the team), and Lazio’s left-back Aleksandar Kolarov has been summoned as Luković’s replacement. Eagles, good luck!

Let’s start with the senior NT. When I’ve last written a post here, our boys had a win against The Faroese, a defeat from The French and were preparing for a crucial home fixture against high-flying Lithuania. Since that moment, our boys had some pretty impressive games, easily defeating Lithuania 3-0, hammering Austria in Vienna 3-1 (thus claiming the top spot in the group) and finally, demolishing Bulgaria 6-1 in a home friendly. Now, the results are pretty nice to see, but the manner in which these teams were defeated is even more splendid. ‘The Eagles’ played some nice, offensive and effective football, showed a winning mentality that generally all Slavic nations desperately lack and formed a truly formidable young team capable of some great things. But, who were the players that shined and lifted us to an another level? Other than the eternally reliable Vidić, a newly-reborn captain Dejan Stanković and a more and more agrresive Marko Pantelić, I really must mention CSKA Moscow’s Miloš Krasić and Standard de Liege’s Milan Jovanović as a heavenly winger duo that made us look like Spain in the last couple of games. Will this heaven last for long is something I really cannot say, but our team finally looks like a truly menacing offensive force, and that’s really something we haven’t seen in the NT for a long, long time. All of these player are relatively young and the players replacing them are even younger, and some would even say – more talented.

When speaking about the Serbian young team, a traditionally successful Serbian U21 team has qualified for the 2009 U21 European Championship in Sweden by comfortably defeating Denmark twice in the play-off. Now, I won’t be exaggerating if I said our U21 team is one of the best teams on the continent in recent years, participating 3 times in the semis and twice in the final in the last 3 editions of the competition. With the win against Denmark, this fairy tale continues and what’s particularily interesting is that each U21 generation is a more talented one then the previous. With the likes of Ajax’s Miralem Sulejmani, Hertha BSC’s Gojko Kačar, Manchester United’s newly acqiured duo of Zoran Tošić and Adem Ljajić and Vojvodina’s attacking prodigy of Danijel Aleksić, the title doesn’t look out of reach. Now, this team perhaps isn’t so strong in the defensive department like the previous one (with Chelsea duo of Ivanović and Rajković, Bremen’s Duško Tošić, Lazio’s Kolarov and Borussia Dortmund’s Rukavina), but presents a formidable offensive force with some big expectations from the country. Oh, and speaking of Chelsea’s Slobodan Rajković, he has been banned from international football for a year after his referee spitting incident at the Olympic Games, and he would’ve otherwise been included in the U21 line-up. All in all, the bright story of Serbian U21 team continues.

I’ve already mentioned Manchester United’s ‘newly acquired’ duo of Zoran Tošić and Adem Ljajić, and this tranfer deserves a section of it’s own. 21-year old Zoran Tošić and 17-years old Adem Ljajić left Partizan Belgrade for a fee believed to be 17m euros/pounds and joined the English, European and World Champions, Manchester United. If some of you thought this transfer was a surprise, I can tell you it was an even greater surprise here in Serbia. Now, while Adem Ljajić is an exceptional talent, a versatile offensive midfielder tracked by nearly all the top-clubs in Europe for some time now, Tošić is a pacy left-winger that didn’t really draw much attention and praise in the country or in the club that he’s played for. However, it looks like Alex Ferguson kept an eye on him for some time now and judged he could better realise his potential in the PL instead of a drastically inferior Serbian Superliga. Anyway, Ljajić returned to Partizan on loan to gain some invaluable first-team experience, while Tošić joined the Red Devils and has since played two games in which he, to my great satisfaction, showed why he was wanted by MU in the first place. A fine, fine, transfer to report, but only from one aspect. From the other, FK Partizan has lost two of it’s young assets (one being 17-years old) and the trend of losing all of Serbian young players to foreign clubs almost as soon as they are heard of continues.

There are just a few more transfers to write about. Serbia’s traditional goalscorer and Valencia’s most expensive spectaror Nikola Žigić, has finally left the club on loan. He returned to Racing Santander, the club he’s played for in the 2006/2007 season and from which he went to Valencia for a huge 20m transfer fee. He barely got a chance in Valencia, not fitting in their playing system (why did they buy him in the first place is beyond my understanding), but whenever he was given a rare game, he scored some goals. He joined Racing one month ago and he has already scored 4 goals in 5 games, not bad for someone who had a year and a half without regularily playing. El Santo, how he was called in Santander, is hitting his stride again. What could be better news for the NT? Other than this, there aren’t any transfers worth mentioning, but the potential ones may look interesting. Milan Jovanović and Miloš Krasić were very much sought after in this transfer window, being linked with clubs such as Manchester United (Krasić), Bayern Munich (Jovanović) and Real Madrid (both of them). They’ve stayed at their rescpective clubs, but be sure that both of them will have some important transfers in the summer. Who knows, one of them might actually win the UEFA Cup.

Oh, and, one other thing I’ve forgot to mention. Neven Subotić, a Banja-Luka born centre-back playing for Borussia Dortmund, has made the most natural choice and opted to play for Serbia. The youngster was eligible to play for the US, Bosnian, and Serbian NT’s, with the only realistic choice existing between USA, the country he’s already played for at the U21 level and that he’s lived in, and Serbia, his country by nationality. Now, if you are puzzled how can a man born in Bosnia be related to Serbia by nationality, you probably don’t know much about this region’s ethnic structure and problematics. You see, Serbian people is one of the three peoples that live in Bosnia (the others being the Croats and Bosnian Muslims – also called the Bosniaks), and two of these peoples, Serbs and Croats, also have their own countries. So, in sports, almost everyone plays for the country he ethnically relates to: Croats play for Croatia, Serbs play for Serbia and Bosniaks play for Bosnia. Anyway, Subotić is an exceptional talent, and with Vidić, Ivanović and Rajković as his centre-back coleagues, I guess that I could really say that Serbia has one of the best centre-back contigents in the world. The problem, though, is that you can’t win a game with centre-backs (with the exception of Vidić in his day, of course) and the offensive department is what will make the difference between qualifying in style and failing miserably.

There is a frienldly tournament in Cyprus coming soon, expect some posts in the next few days…

Goalkeepers: Radiša Ilić (OFK Beograd), Damir Kahriman (Konyaspor).

Strikers: Nikola Žigić (Valencia CF), Danko Lazović (PSV Eindhoven), Milan Jovanović (Royal Standard de Liège), Ranko Despotović (FC Rapid Bucureşti).

Thoughts, anyone?

Apart from the entirely new goalkeeping corps, it’s a strong team with a lot of familiar names, but the odds of him getting all these guys for a friendly are pretty slim, particularly those coming from teams not on break, and busy fighting for league titles or European spots. For example, given how delicate Stanković’s health has been this season, how likely are Inter to release him for a friendly, when they finally have him fit for the first time since last summer? And no Bojan. Boo! Đukić’s self-proclaimed emphasis on youth combined with the desperate need to convince the kid to pick Serbia means Bojan should get a damn call — and soon, too, before Spain offer him a senior cap, and he makes the obvious choice.

Also, the World Cup qualifiers have finally been scheduled, along with a trio of friendies; the upcoming calendar is after the jump.

06/02/2008 Macedonia v Serbia
24/05/2008 Republic of Ireland v Serbia
31/05/2008 Germany v Serbia

[WC Qualifiers]
06/09/2008 Serbia v Faroe Islands
10/09/2008 France v Serbia
11/10/2008 Serbia v Lithuania
15/10/2008 Austria v Serbia
28/03/2009 Romania v Serbia
06/06/2009 Serbia v Austria
10/06/2009 Faroe Islands v Serbia
09/09/2009 Serbia v France
10/10/2009 Serbia v Romania
14/10/2009 Lithuania v Serbia

[Thanks to Zine for the squad list with the clubs included, and Kayannie for the calendar info.]

Since his resignation from the Partizan bench last week, it’s been a foregone conclusion that Đukić would get the job, but the length of the contract is a big surprising: It’s only for two years, which means it ends before the World Cup in South Africa — not exactly a resounding vote of confidence, is it? The FSS have said the contract will automatically extend for another six months if Serbia qualify, but why why not make it run 30 months from the start, like the contract Fabio Capello got in England? (Granted, Đukić can only dream about the kind of money Capello is making, but the length of the deal seems quite reasonable.) Contracts are hardly worth the paper they’re written on these days, so I don’t understand why the FSS wouldn’t assume the best and just give him a contract through the World Cup, since everyone and his brother would know he’d have to qualify to avoid being fired. It seems like they missed out on a chance to show their faith in him, which is not the best way to start a relationship.

In addition to guiding the full national team through World Cup qualifying (against France, the Faroe Islands, Romania, Austria and Lithuania), Đukić will also be in charge of the Olympic team when it goes to Beijing next summer. The Olympic rules dictate that the side be made up mostly of U-23 players with three overage ones allowed, which means the team will probably feature a lot of his old U-21 team and, in reality, could have a lot of overlap with the full national side. Generally putting national team coaches in charge of both isn’t considered the best idea because it divides their attention, but because so much of the Olympic team will probably end up in the full national side, in this case it makes sense, if only because it gives Đukić more time with his team.

The FSS say the appointment was unanimous, and Đukić himself is all fired up, and already talking about bringing kids into the side. “We want to play aggressive football and take the game to our rivals while keeping the flair and talent that brought success in the past. To do that, we need to bring in young prospects who will play their hearts out for their country, sing their national anthem with pride and win the hearts of all fans.” Hells yeah!

So far, two friendly matches have been scheduled: Against the Republic of Ireland in Dublin on May 24, and against Germany in Gelsenkirchen a week later. Ireland face Montenegro in WC qualifying, while Germany will play Croatia in their Euro 2008 group about a week after the Serbia friendly, so both teams have obvious brought in the Serbs hoping they’ll present a similar style to those to sides. Given that the matches will be held shortly before the Olympics, one assumes Đukić will also be using them as warm-ups, and will call up his Olympic team for them rather than the full national team.