Serbia World Cup 2018

Serbia World Cup 2018

Serbia surprised many people by topping their UEFA qualifying group to book their place in Russia, and they will be looking to make it past the group stage for the first time since becoming an independent nation.

History at the World Cup

SerbiaSerbia are a successor of the Yugoslavian national team, but it’s a pretty convoluted history which covers civil war and several incarnations of the same team. So, for the purposes of this, we are only looking at Serbia’s World Cup history since they became an independent nation in 2006. Which means it isn’t a very long history. In fact, they have only qualified for one previous finals as an independent nation. This was in 2010, where they beat Germany but lost to Ghana and Australia to exit the tournament at the group stage. They almost qualified for the 2014 finals but finished third in their qualifying group behind Belgium and Croatia.

  • World Cup Finals Appearances – 1 (as an independent nation)
  • Previous best Performance – Group Stage

How Serbia qualified

Serbia were drawn in a tough looking group with Euro 2016 Semi Finalists Wales, Austria, Republic of Ireland, Georgia, and Moldova.

An opening home draw against the Republic of Ireland wasn’t the ideal start, but it was the start of an eight-match unbeaten run which left them in a fantastic position.

Defeat to Austria, thanks to a last-minute goal, left the group wide open heading into the final round of matches.

Serbia were top by a point and needed to beat Georgia to secure automatic qualification, something which they did by a single goal.

Aleksandar Mitrovic was the groups top scorer, with six goals, and Dusan Tadic netted four to sit in equal second.

Coach/Manager

The Serbian team are preparing for this World Cup without a full-time manager, after Slavoljub Muslin’s reign was ended in October 2017.

Former central defender Mladen Krstajic, who represented Serbia and Montenegro at the 2006 World Cup, was put in charge in a caretaker role, in his first ever managerial position.

As a player, Krstajic represented his country fifty-nine times and won league titles with both Partizan, in his home country, and Werder Bremen in Germany.

It’s a little too early to say if Krstajic will be in-charge of the national team when Russia 2018 kicks off, but it will be a daunting start to life as a football manager if he is.

Serbia  Star Players

Aleksandar Mitrovic of Newcastle United was the stand-out player in qualifying, top scoring in the qualification group to fire Serbia to the World Cup finals.

Former Chelsea star Branislav Ivanovic is the captain of the team, and has over 100 caps to his name. He brings a wealth of experience to the squad and is an important part of the team, despite being 33-years-old.

Many Serbian players ply their trade in England. These include Luka Milivojevic of Crystal Palace, Nemanja Matic of Manchester United, and Dusan Tadic of Southampton.

Serbia World Cup 2018: Assessing Their Chances & Odds

Serbia will find life tough at this World Cup, as the lowest ranked nation in a difficult looking group with Brazil, Switzerland, and Costa Rica.

They will need to be on top form from the start, and playing the next lowest team in the group in their opener gives them the chance of a morale-boosting victory to get things going. However, Costa Rica are no pushovers and any managerial upheaval may be detrimental to their preparation.

It’s a good chance for the Serbian players to compete at the highest level, and they do have plenty of talented players throughout the squad, but they may just be a level below the other teams in the group.

The bookmakers give them a chance though, pricing them as third-favourites to win the group at odds of around 7/1.

Our Serbia World Cup Prediction

We predict that Serbia will give it a good go and cause the other teams in their group a few problems, but we cannot see them making it through to the knock-out stages.