WCQ Preview: Serbia – Lithuania
Today at 20:15 CET, Belgrade and the Serbian NT will host one of the most pleasant surprises in the WC qualifiers so far, Lithuania. Few could have imagined that in the group consisted of France, Serbia, Romania and Austria, Lithuania would be the team to reach the top of the group and show some serious ambition to actually qualify in the end. They have pulled a major surprise by beating Romania 3:0 in their own turf, and then win the battle of the surprise packages by defeating high-flying Austria 2:0 at home. Altough I haven’t watched any of those games, reports suggest that Lithuania played some pretty intelligent and serious football, using all the chances they could get and swiftly transformed the whole team from defense to attack and vice versa. Normally, you would expect Serbia to easily outclass a team like Lithuania, but their recent form and the ambition they have showed force you not to take them for granted and seriously reconsider your approach to this game. Altough not the derby of the derbies, this games promises to be an interesting and close-fought encounter, a rather important one for both sides involved.
News:
There are some alterations to the squad list I have posted here in the previous article. Nantes’s midfielder Stefan Babović is injured, so Standard Liege’s strong>Milan Jovanović got called up instead. Altough it’s really not a good thing to have injuries to the players which you already called up, this one might be for the good. It’s highly unlikely that Babović would have played even a bit with the competition he had in midfield, while there is a general consensus that we really do need Milan Jovanović’s skills and form in the attack. I’ve already written how Jovanović’s non-inclusion in the original list came as a shock to many fans who consider him the best striker we have at the moment, so it’s quite a good thing to have him around – it wouldn’t be a surprise if he even got to start the game. This, however, aren’t the only injury-related news to report, and the rest of them aren’t so pleasant. A would-be debutant in the squad and the player which is thought of having a very bright future ahead of him, Miloš Ninković, pulled out of the squad due to injury. Gojko Kačar of Hertha Berlin also seems unlikely to be fit, but the truth in this remains to be seen. So, we lost three of our central midfielders to injury in the days prior to the game itself. Many teams would consider this a crippling blow, but it shouldn’t really affect Serbia: we have Dejan Stanković, Zdravko Kuzmanović, Nenad Milijaš and possibly even Miloš Krasić and Boško Janković available for those two spots (assuming we play 4-4-2). The wings should also be fine, altough the injury to Sulejmani leaves us with only three players, Zoran Tošić, Miloš Krasić and Boško Janković for both positions. The attack now looks fine with Žigić, Lazović, Pantelić, Jovanović and Mrđa, while the defense, of course, remains the strongest part of the Serbian team. Nemanja Vidić (CB) and Branislav Ivanović (CB or RB) look certain to feature, while any of Dragutinović, Krstajić, Đurić, Rukavina or Obradović might get the chance. Rotation isn’t really anything new in the Serbian team, so there are numerous combinations for Antić to chose from. Let’s hope he chooses wisely and puts the best possible team on the field – this game might really need it.
Probable starting lineup:
Stojković
Ivanović – Vidić – Krstajić – Dragutinović
Janković – Stanković – Kuzmanović – Krasić
Pantelić – Žigić
Prediction:
I’m afraid to guess anything, but judging by Serbia’s effectiveness in recent games and Lithuania’s style of play, I’d go with a 1:0 victory, with a goal scored in the later parts of the game. If Serbia, however, manages to score early, my guts tell me it’ll be 3-1 with Lithuania opening up a bit and letting us him them on the counter. ‘Eagles’, please don’t screw this up. The fans deserve better.
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Comments


Serbia 3 Lithuania 0
Sounds like an impressive win . Couldn’t find a way to watch it but reports say we definitley outplayed them with an attacking formation . Only blemish is is Zigic missing the penalty kick but I can’t judge how bad that was that as i didn’t see it .
I smell something cooking here .
Posted from
Canada




It really was an impressive win, although you couldn’t say it was flawless. Antić put a very offensive formation on the pitch and we were very dangerous going forward, much more than I thought we would. Just like I said in the preview, if we score early, we’re capable of being strong on the offense. We could’ve scored even more with the way we played, and the thing I really liked isn’t the quality of play (although it was rather good), but the desire to win that was evident from the very beggining. Combined with the U21 win away to Denmark, this really is an excellent day for Serbian football. I just hope for wednesday to be another one! ‘Eagles’ and ‘Eaglets’, well done!




hope this is a sign that things have gelled and an indication of more good things to come.
has been a talented team for a long time. glad to see they are coming out of tough times.




On a teletext of B92 TV Station, there’s a comment :”This is the best Serbia match in the decade”. Hope they will continue, ‘couse coach has same surname as me




Well, taking into account the pathetic condition this team is in since the turn of the century, this really was our finest match of the decade. New talented generations from the U21 are being slowly incorporated in the first team and there are signs that the best is still to come. Now we really, really have many reasons to be optimistic!




great victory for Serbia on the road to qualifying!
Posted from
Germany




THE FUTURE IS BRIGHT,THE FUTURE IS SERBIA CCCC
Posted from
United States


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