A look at the country’s demographics, football history and its squad status prior to the Qatar World Cup 2022.
Number of inhabitants: approx. 7 million.
Continent: Europe
Confederation: UEFA
National Football Association: FSS
Number of members: approx. 147,000 (2.1% of total population)
International trophies won: /
Best World Cup result: 4th place in 1962.
Key Players
In the past: Branislav Ivanovic, Dejan Stankovic, Savo Milosevic, Aleksandar Kolarov, Vladimir Stojkovic.
Key current players: Kostic, Milinkovic-Savic, Tadic, Vlahovic, Mitrovic.
Coach, formation and possible lineup
Coach: Dragan Stojkovic. (since 2021)
Typical formation: 3-4-2-1 or 3-4-1-2
Possible lineup:
- GK: Vanja Milinkovic-Savic (Torino) 25
- LCB: Strahinja Pavlovic (RB Salzburg) 21
- RCB: Milos Veljkovic (Werder Bremen) 27
- CB: Stefan Mitrovic (Getafe) 32
- RM: Andrija Zivkovic (PAOK) 26
- LM: Filip Kostic (Juventus) 29
- CM: Sergej Milinkovic-Savic (Lazio) 27
- CM: Sasa Lukic (Torino) 26
- ACM: Dusan Tadic (Ajax) 33
- ST: Dusan Vlahovic (Juventus) 22
- ST: Aleksandar Mitrovic (Fulham) 28
Age Report
Players aged 25 or under in the current lineup: 3
Players aged 32 or over in the current lineup: 2
There are 2 players in this lineup that will (most likely) be playing their last World Cup this year: Dusan Tadic and Stefan Mitrovic.
There are 3 players in this lineup that can play at least two more: Vanja Milinkovic-Savic, Strahinja Pavlovic and Dusan Vlahovic.
The remaining 6 players could play in one or in some cases two more World Cups.
Youngest player: Strahinja Pavlovic, born 24 May 2001 (21)
Oldest player: Dusan Tadic, born 20 November 1988 (33)
Average squad age: 26.9
World Cup Qatar – Group G
Fixtures:
Thursday 24 November Brazil vs Serbia
Monday 28 November Cameroon vs Serbia
Friday 2 December Serbia vs Switzerland
Our view:
Serbia is a good team. Good enough to make it out of the group stage in Qatar? Difficult to say. Brazil is the clear favorite in the group, but anyone here could very well progress to the next round. It will all depend on form of the day. Serbia does have a lot of quality though. Switzerland and Cameroon are tough to beat as well. Maybe it is Brazil that should be wary?
