This Thursday marks an exciting encounter between international sides Serbia and Scotland as both teams attempt to progress past the final stages of the European Championship Qualifying stages.
Here is everything you need to know before the game kicks-off.
TEAM TALK
SERBIA
The Eagles looked brilliant after beating, arguably the toughest team left in the qualifying stages, Norway and will look to continue that momentum into the Scotland game.
He may not be the obvious candidate to score a goal for the Serbs but a brace from powerful midfield maestro Sergej Milinković-Savić topped off an impressive all-round performance from the twenty-five-year-old.
One man who is an obvious goal scorer for Serbia is Aleksandar Mitrovic. He may be struggling to find the net in the Premier League but he has been in fantastic form for his country.
There has been a lot of controversy over if certain players could join the squad due to Covid-19 restrictions, but Serbia find themselves just two members short due to the restrictions.
Besides missing only Sassuolo’s Filip Djuricic and Werder Bremen’s Milos Veljkovic they have a fully fit squad to use against the scots.
Possible line-up: Rajkovic, Stefan Mitrovic, Kolarov, Milenkovic, Lazovic, Ristic, Maksimovic, Gudelj, Tadic, Alexander Mitrovic, Milinkovic-Savic
SCOTLAND
The Scots left it very late to get through to the finals after a tense penalty shootout against Israel after a complete stalemate between the two sides.
They won’t care however as they look towards an amazing opportunity to progress through to the European championship first-round for only the third time in their history.
Embed from Getty ImagesScotland have struggled recently after a positive Covid test for Southampton’s Stuart Armstrong meant Ryan Christie and Kieran Tierney were out of the squad but they have only been hit with two members unavailable for Thursday’s game.
Winger Ryan Fraser and defender Grant Hanley are the only individuals who will miss the play-off against Serbia, both through respective injuries.
Possible line-up: Marshall, Robertson, Cooper, Gallagher, O’Donnell, McTominay, McGinn, Jack, McGregor, Dykes, McBurnie
SCORE PREDICTION:
SERBIA 3-1 SCOTLAND
Scotland will be more than up for a fight here especially considering this would be only the third time in their history they have ever reached the Euro’s.
However, Serbia are probably the best team left in the qualifying stages and just posses too much quality, especially with Mitrovic scoring in the way he is.
It will be an entertaining game but in the end, I predict a comfortable win for the Serb’s.
KEY STATS
- Scotland have the chance to record a fourth competitive clean sheet in a row, the most since 1997.
- Its been 22 years since Scotland reached the first round of the Euro’s.
- Mitrovic has scored 14 goals in 14 home matches for Serbia.
- Serbia have only recorded one win in their last five home games (W1, D2, L3).
- There is a difference of fifteen ranks between the two sides in FIFA’s global ranking system, Serbia #30, Scotland #45.
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