Serbia Goes To Cyprus

February 9th, 2009 | By: Nikola | 1 Comment »

It seems rather bizzare to read this, but Serbian football has actually moved to Cyprus these days. Not only does the senior NT play a friendly tournament with Cyprus, Slovakia and Ukraine, but also the Serbian U21 plays a friendly game against the island nation. Crvena Zvezda (Red Star), arguably the country’s most successful and supported team, also resides on the island, preparing for the second part of the Serbian Superliga season, due to begin on 21. of february with a derby against bitter rivals and current league leaders Partizan Belgrade. Serbia’s two other top teams, Partizan and Vojvodina, also aren’t very far away, training just a little bit north of Cyprus in the Turkish region of Antalya. Anyway, the weather on Cyprus looks just fine for some interesting football matches for the national sides, and let’s hope the sun shines on them too. Short previews to follow:

Senior Serbian NT participates in a friendly tournament with Cyprus, Ukraine and Slovakia, playing the semi-finals of the competition with the host nation on tuesday at 18:00 CET. The winners of this match meets the winner of the clash between Ukraine and Slovakia in the tournament final, and judging by coach Radomir Antić’s comments, Serbia will go there to win it. Our chances? Other than the injured Marko Pantelić, Serbian squad is at its full strenght, and judging by the current form of Vidić, Žigić, Stanković, Milijaš, Sulejmani and Janković, this team should really put on a good show in Cyprus. Here is the full squad list:

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

Defenders:
Nemanja Vidić (Manchester United), Branislav Ivanović (Chelsea), Antonio Rukavina (1860 Munchen), Ivica Dragutinović (Sevilla), Ivan Obradović (Partizan), Neven Subotić (Borussia Dortmund), Igor Đurić (Vojvodina), Aleksandar Luković (Udinese)

Midfielders:
Dejan Stanković (Inter Milano), Zdravko Kuzmanović (Fiorentina), Nenad Milijaš (Red Star), Miljan Mutavdžić (Javor), Miloš Krasić (CSKA Moskva), Boško Janković (Genoa), Zoran Tošić (Manchester United), Nemanja Matić (Košice), Milan Jovanović (Standard Liege)

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

Defenders:
Nikola Petković, Marko Jovanović, Nenad Tomović, Nemanja Pejčinović, Nikola Gulan, Aleksandar Ignjatović

Midfielders:
Ljubomir Fejsa, Milan Smiljanić, Dušan Tadić, Adem Ljajić, Aleksandar Ignjovski, Nemanja Tomić, Marko Milinković

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!