Doha, November 06 (QNA) – After failing to qualify to the last-16 in 2010 and 2018, odds do not seem to favor Serbia when it participates for the third time in the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.
Serbia appears to have a difficult task to reach the last-16 as Brazil, the record holder with five World Cup titles, is one of the teams in the group, along with Switzerland and Cameroon.
Dragan Stojkovic, the current coach and one of Serbia’s greatest players and, will face a difficult task during the World Cup in Qatar. He managed to guide the team to the World Cup, and fans will be hoping for more success. The biggest concern for the Serbian team in the World Cup will be getting past the group stage, especially since it failed in doing so the last two times.
Stojkovic relies in his starting lineup on a prominent group of players in various lines, led by the attacking trio Dusan Vlahovic, Luka Jovic and Aleksandar Mitrovic, as well as the Sergej Savic, Nemanja Gudelj, Filip Duricic, Dusan Tadic, Nikola Milenkovic, Stefan Mitrovic, and the goalkeeper Mile Svilar.
Serbia will play Brazil on Nov. 24 at Lusail Stadium. They will then face Cameroon on the Nov. 28 at Al Janoub Stadium. They will conclude their matches with a showdown against Switzerland on Dec. 2 at Stadium 974.
The Football Association of Serbia chose the Rixos Golf Hotel as the headquarters of the national team. They will conduct their training at Al Arabi Club.
As an independent country, Serbia qualified for the third time to the World Cup finals after topping the first group of European qualifiers. The group included Portugal, Ireland, Luxembourg, Azerbaijan, and the State of Qatar, which participated without counting their results.
The Serbian national team’s path to the Qatar 2022 World Cup was not easy, but it outperformed all its competitors and managed to qualify to world cup without suffering a single defeat. They collected 20 points, winning six, and drawing two. The team scored 18 goals and conceded 9 goals.
The team had previously participated 17 times as part of Yugoslavia before the breakup, and they also participated once as part of Serbia and Montenegro in the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
During their participation in the previous two times as an independent country in 2010 and 2018, Serbia failed to progress past the group stage. They played six matches, won two and lost four. They scored 4 goals and conceded 7.
As part of Yugoslavia, Serbia came fourth place in World Cup 1930 and 1962. They qualified for the quarterfinals in 1954, 1958, and 1990.
At the European level, Serbia, as an independent country, failed to qualify for the 2016 and 2020 European Championships, but they qualified in 2000 with Montenegro, and have previously appeared in four previous editions as part of Yugoslavia.
Serbia came second place in the UEFA European Football Championship twice, in 1960 and 1968. They came fourth in 1976, and they reached the quarterfinals in 2000.
In their history in European Championships, Serbia played 14 matches, won three, drew twice, and lost nine times. They scored a total of 24 goals, and conceded 39.
Among the best footballers who played with Serbia throughout its history of its international and continental participation were Branislav Ivanovic, Nemanja Vidic, Blagoje Marjanovic, and Fulham player Aleksandar Mitrovic, who played the most international matches with 106 matches for his country.
The best footballers among the current generation are Sergej Savic, Philip Kostic, and Dusan Tadic. (QNA)