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.