WCQ Review: Serbia 1 – 0 Austria

A night to remember or a night to forget? Well, I’ll certainly remember it because of the positives – a full stadium with more than 50.000 supporters, an incredible atmosphere during the whole game, an evident desire to win from the players, and, of course, the invaluable 3 points that we have won. The negatives? This was perhaps the least convicing victory Serbia has achieved in the qualifers so far, making several errors in defense and letting Austria coming very close to equalising and sending the whole crowd back home in tears. Now, I won’t go as far as saying that this was a completely undeserved victory, but a draw that The Austrians could have won wouldn’t be undeserved either, and that wasn’t the scenario the fans were hoping for after some pretty impressive displayes in the previous games. But hey, they say that what makes big teams really big is that they have the ability to win even those games they do not dominate, and if that means Serbia has finally become a “big” team, I’ll take this win with open arms! A quick review to follow:

It could be said that Serbia dominated much of the first half, breaking the Austrians on the flanks with Miloš Krasić and Milan Jovanović both playing exceptionally well and creating numerous chances for the home side. The goal, however, wasn’t to come in the form of an organised attack, but from a defensive blunder from the Austrians: Lazović managed to take the ball after a gross mistake from a visiting defender and the goalkeeper fouled the striker in the penalty area. Nenad Milijaš, the player that was closely wathced upon by many scouts present at the game, confidently took the penalty to give Serbia the lead. After the goal, it looked like it was going to be a routine victory for the hosts, but there were some bad signs in defense – Nemanja Vidić got injured and time after time again it was proven that the Serbian defense isn’t quite the same without him. There wasn’t going to be much action until the break, however, and the home side went to the locker rooms smiling.

The second half proved to be much more interesting. The Austrians, knowing that they don’t have anything to lose, started playing some bold and offensive football that took the Serbians by surprise. Nemanja Vidić was replaced at half-time by a right-back, Antonio Rukavina, and the defensive reshuffle that ensued made the Serbian defense look a lot less convincing. Both Rukavina and young centre-back Neven Subotić looked rather shaky at times and the Austrians were creating a chance after chance. The introduction of Boško Janković instead of Danko Lazović midway through the second half, however, gave the home side a spark that they needed. It was Janković who hit the post after a free-kick on the left side and it seemed like Serbia would actually score sooner or later.
But the guests had “secret weapons” of their own. Constantini introduced Marc Janko and Rubin Okotie (a fantastic player!) to improve his side’s offense and those two really wreaked havoc in the Serbian lines. It’s not that the Austrians dominated the game after that moment, but they were given too much space to create chances and it could’ve all ended rather miserably for Serbia hadn’t Marc Janko hit the bar after a fantastic shot that could’ve been labeled as a goal of the round. The whole crowd waited for the final whistle in fear, but the Austrians didn’t pose much of a threat at the very end.

It was a vital victory for Serbia, but it was far less convincing than the previous ones and that is something that doesn’t please the fans at all. With this level of play, France would definitely humiliate us and we can only hope this was just a bad day and that the pressure of having a full crowd in a long time took it’s toll on the players. But in the end, 3 points are won and the manner in which our direct rivals, France, won some of their games shouldn’t make us feel as bad as most of the fans do at the moment. It wasn’t an undeserved win and we should only look to improve our level of play before somebody really does punish us for it – let’s just hope it doesn’t happen at all.