WCQ Preview: Serbia – Austria

Tonight at 20:30 CET, Serbia will host Austria in a vital encounter in Group 7 of the South Africa 2010 qualifiers. The game will be played in The Crvena Zvezda (Red Star) Stadium in Belgrade in front of more than 50.000 spectarors, an extraordinary large number of supporters for a football game in this country where fans usually prefer staying at home by the TV than flock to the venue itself to support their teams. This fact itself serves as a proof for two things: that the nation finally stands behind its national football team and respects its achievments, and that this game actually IS vital. More to follow:

Serbia currently occupies top spot in Group 7 with 12 points, followed by France with 10 points, Lithuania with 9 points (and an extra game played) and Austria with 7 points. Just by looking at the table it is evident that Serbia and Austria aren’t exactly direct rivals for qualification at the moment and that Serbia, especially after a rather convicing 3-1 away win in Vienna in october, goes into the game as firm favorites. To be honest, it is widely expected that Serbia will destroy Austria tonight in front of sold-out crowd and the 6 points gained from this fixture and a game against The Faroese on wednesday are already calculated as won. Yes, Austria is weaker than Serbia on paper, yes, we will have a strong home advantage, and yes, we have already overcome much bigger hurdles on our road to South Africa, but is it really all that easy to win tonight?
If Austria won, they would have only two points less than Serbia and therefore they actually do have a strong reason to fight on. They certainly don’t have anything to lose and we are in a position to jeopardize all that he have achieved so far if we don’t approach this game in a proper manner. Also, The French and The Lithuanians are certainly crossing their fingers for us to drop points tonight. The home game against The French in september should definetely be a game of the decade and an extremely vital clash to determine the winners of Group 7, and if we win these two “minor” games in june, we will be firmly in the driving seat for that encounter – losing points here in june could make that game a make-or-break for us rather than the French. We should not let that happen!

Team news:

Unfortunately, our joint-best goalscorer so far and an attraction of the upcoming transfer window, Nikola Žigić, misses the game because of yellow cards and will watch the game from the stands. The other probable absentee is young Partizan Belgrade left-back Ivan Obradović, an another summer attraction and a terrific player for us in the qualifiers so far. Other than that, Antić will have at his disposal a strong team that looks good enough to defeat the Austrians, themselves missing a few of their key players. Both Antić and Constantini promissed to play some bold, offensive football that will probably siute the fans quite well and make this game live-up to its expectations.

Probable line-up:

Ivanović – Vidić – Dragutinović – Kolarov
Krasić – Stanković – Milijaš – Jovanović
Pantelić – Lazović

Prediction:

I really am too terrified to predict anything at all. With both teams ready to play offensively, I assume there are going to be some goals, probably from both sides. I’ll be courageous and predict a 4-1 win for Serbia, not because I believe that the Austrians are going to be crushed, but because I expect their bold style of play could eventually allow us to hit them on the counter-attack and achieve a more resounding victory than we actually deserve. However, I wouldn’t be too surprised to see a dull draw or even a victory for Austria, they are really not a team you should underestimate and have enough quality to stage an upset. Let’s hope, though, that this won’t happen tonight. As always, keep an eye on Milan Jovanović and Miloš Krasić in the Serbian team, while on the Austrian side you should definetely watch out for Marc Janko, one of the most prolific forwards in Europe at the moment.

P.S. You should also drop by the Austria WCB, where I’m sure J has some interesting thoughts to share from the opponent’s perspective.

Your blogger will be at the game itself, so he won’t be able to post any comments or thoughts until tomorrow, but will hopefully give you a good review of the game in the next few days. And yes, he really is excited to be a part of a 50.000 fan army that will support The White Eagles tonight. May this be a night to remember for a long, long time – in the positive sense, of course!