Antić’s List For France Announced

The moment we’ve all been waiting for is drawing near. There is little more than a week until the game Serbia plays against France, it’s only rival for the top spot in the group, and needless to say, one of the very best national teams in Europe. However, Serbia has reason for optimism, not fear: it occupies top spot in the group, and even if The French defeat Romania at home four days prior to this encounter, they’ll still be trailing two points behind Serbia. In other words, Serbia needs a win or a draw to stay firmly in the driving seat regarding direct qualification. Other than that, it is a noteworthy detail that Serbia has a winning streak in recent games, a “football renaissance” by my own words, dispatching all of it’s rivals in both competitive and friendly games (oops, friendly loss to Ukraine notwithstanding) ever since that loss in Paris last summer. Lithuania, Austria (x2), Cyprus, Romania, Sweden, Faroe Islands and South Africa have all been defeated and there’s a real feeling of optimism regarding this country’s football present and future. Contrary to what you might expect, Serbia is tipped by it’s fans to defeat France in this vital clash and confirm it’s presence in the next summer’s World Cup. Maybe that’s why all the tickets available via phone and the internet (44.000) were sold during the very first morning the sale had begun. Your blogger doesn’t like this, because it’s a big question whether he’ll be able to get himself a ticket at all, and for him as a devoted follower of the NT, that’s not very nice, is it? Anyway, here’s Antić’s list of players for the showdown the whole nation has been waiting for:

Goalkeepers:

Nikola Žigić (Valencia)
Milan Jovanović (Standard Liege)
Danko Lazović (PSV Eindhoven)
Marko Milinković (Košice)

Now, what is interesting about this list? About those who are on the list, the presence of Marko Milinković and Radoslav Petrović could be considered surprising, but as these players are not likely to feature at all with such competition in their positions, it’s not really that important for the side as a whole. What does matter, however, are the absentees: Boško Janković has injured his knee and will not be back until February, while Marko Pantelić has been left behind for not having a club at the moment. Janković’s absence does hurt the side’s depth on the wings, but with Krasić, Jovanović, Tošić and Ninković all capable of playing in his position his loss shouldn’t be crippling. But as a quality player capable of turning games on his own, he’ll probably be sorely missed if things don’t work out the way we want them to.
Pantelić’s situation is more tricky: although omitted from the squad for not having a club, Antić has promised him to be the part of the team as soon as he finds himself a new team (note: Pantelić has been without a club since his Hertha contract expired and has trained with Crvena Zvezda since then). Pantelić was a starter for us so far, and while there are other attacking options available to Antić, his absence could be considered as a rather serious problem. The matter would be settled, however, hadn’t Pantelić found himself a club in the meantime, signing with Ajax. Will Antić call him up after this splendid news, or will he consider him unprepared for such a serious challenge – it remains to be seen.

A match preview will follow in the next few days…

P.S. The whole nation has really gone wild because of this game and there are serious ticket buying problems for all those unlucky not to have ordered them on the very first morning of internet sale (and even that wasn’t a guarantee, this whole mess is rather contraversial with massive ticket orders from sponsor companies and such). Therefore, I probably won’t be able to get the ticket for myself. Ironic, isn’t it? Covering for the NT for such a long time, watching it play against Faroe Islands, Austria and such, and then miss the “game of the decade” I’ve been writing about for a while. Dissapointment is a rather weak word for what I feel, but I guess that’s life.