Serbia national football team

 

Serbia
Nickname(s)	White Eagles (Бели Орлови, Beli Orlovi)
Association	Football Association of Serbia
Confederation	UEFA (Europe)
Head coach	Javier Clemente
Captain	Dejan Stanković
Most caps	Savo Milošević (101)
Top scorer	Savo Milošević (35)
Home stadium	Stadion Crvena Zvezda, Belgrade
FIFA code	SRB
FIFA ranking	22
Highest FIFA ranking	17 (July 2007)
Lowest FIFA ranking	55 (October 2004)
Elo ranking	31
First kit 　 Second kit
First international Brazil 2 - 0 Yugoslavia (Porto Alegre, Brazil; 23 December, 1994) First international as Serbia and Montenegro Serbia and Montenegro 2 - 2 Azerbaijan (Podgorica, SCG; 12 February, 2003) First international as Serbia Czech Republic 1 - 3 Serbia (Uherské Hradiště, Czech Republic; 16 August, 2006)
Biggest win Faroe Islands 1 - 8 Yugoslavia (Toftir, Faroe Islands; 6 October, 1996) As Serbia Azerbaijan 1 - 6 Serbia (Baku, Azerbaijan; 17 October 2007)
Biggest defeat Argentina 6 - 0 Serbia & Montenegro (Gelsenkirchen, Germany; 16 June, 2006)
World Cup
Appearances	2 (First in 1998)
Best result	Round 2, 1998
European Championship
Appearances	1 (First in 2000)
Best result	Quarterfinals, 2000

The Serbia national football team (Serbian: Фудбалска репрезентација Србије / Fudbalska reprezentacija Srbije) represents Serbia in international football competitions and is controlled by the Football Association of Serbia. It was previously known as the Yugoslavia national football team until February 2003 and the Serbia and Montenegro national football team until June 2006 when Serbia declared independence as the successor state to the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro. It was renamed the Serbia national football team on June 28, 2006, with the Montenegro national football team created to represent the new state of Montenegro.

FIFA considers the Serbia national team the direct descendant of the Serbia and Montenegro and Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia national teams.

History

See also: Yugoslavia national football team

Although the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was formed on April 28, 1992, because of the international sanctions due to the Yugoslav wars banning the country from international sporting events, the football team didn't play its first match until 23 December, 1994, when they lost to Brazil. Since then the team has qualified for the World Cup twice, in 1998 and 2006, and for the European Championship once, in 2000. In 2003, with the reconstitution of the country as Serbia and Montenegro, the team changed its name accordingly.

On May 21, 2006 Montenegro voted to dissolve its political union with Serbia. On June 3, Montenegro became a sovereign state meaning there will be separate Montenegrin national teams competing in future tournaments. This did not affect the finals of the 2006 World Cup, in which the newly independent states of Serbia and Montenegro competed under the same flag for the last time but did not progress past the group stage.

On August 16, 2006 the new team representing Serbia played its first international match, with a 3-1 away win against the Czech Republic.

World Cup record

• 1930 to 1990 - See Yugoslavia
• 1994 – Banned because of international sanctions due to Yugoslav wars (as Federal Republic of Yugoslavia)
• 1998 – Round 2 (as FR Yugoslavia)
• 2002 – Did not qualify (as FR Yugoslavia)
• 2006 – Round 1 (as Serbia and Montenegro)

European Championship record

• 1960 to 1992 - See Yugoslavia
• 1996 – Banned because of international sanctions due to Yugoslav wars (as Federal Republic of Yugoslavia)
• 2000 – Quarterfinals (as FR Yugoslavia)
• 2004 – Did not qualify (started qualification as FR Yugoslavia, finished as Serbia and Montenegro)
• 2008 – Applied as Serbia and Montenegro; Currently competing in qualification as Serbia

Squads

Current squad

The following players have all been called up to the Serbia squad for the Euro 2008 qualifying matches against Armenia and Azerbaijan. Defender Ivica Dragutinović is suspended for both matches, after receiving a red card in the match against Portugal. The team vice-captain Mladen Krstajić is out of the team due to an injury,^[1] while Manchester United's Nemanja Vidić was called at first, but had to be replaced with Milan Biševac, after consultations with the national team's medical staff, since he suffered a concussion in his previous Premier League match.^[2]

Caps and goals are as of October 17, 2007 and include the qualifying match against Azerbaijan. The next qualifying match will be in Belgrade on November 17 2007 against Kazakhstan.

No. Pos. Player DoB/Age Caps Goals Club 1 GK Vladimir Stojković July 28 1983 (1983--) (age 24) 14 0 Sporting CP 2 DF Antonio Rukavina January 26 1984 (1984--) (age 23) 6 0 Partizan 4 MF Igor Duljaj October 29 1979 (1979--) (age 28) 45 0 Shakhtar Donetsk 6 DF Branislav Ivanović February 22 1984 (1984--) (age 23) 7 1 Lokomotiv Moscow 7 MF Milan Smiljanić November 19 1986 (1986--) (age 20) 2 1 Espanyol 8 FW Danko Lazović May 17 1983 (1983--) (age 24) 17 4 PSV Eindhoven 9 FW Marko Pantelić September 15 1978 (1978--) (age 29) 15 1 Hertha Berlin 10 FW Dejan Stanković (Captain) September 11 1978 (1978--) (age 29) 72 13 Inter Milan 11 DF Duško Tošić January 19 1985 (1985--) (age 22) 6 1 Werder Bremen 12 GK Vlada Avramov April 5 1979 (1979--) (age 28) 0 0 Fiorentina 14 FW Milan Jovanović April 18 1981 (1981--) (age 26) 5 2 Standard Liège 15 DF Milan Stepanov April 2 1983 (1983--) (age 24) 6 0 Porto 16 MF Nenad Kovačević October 11 1980 (1980--) (age 27) 20 0 Lens 17 MF Miloš Krasić October 1 1984 (1984--) (age 23) 8 0 CSKA Moscow 18 MF Boško Janković March 3 1984 (1984--) (age 23) 8 3 Palermo 19 FW Nikola Žigić September 25 1980 (1980--) (age 27) 24 10 Valencia CF 20 DF Milan Biševac August 31 1983 (1983--) (age 24) 3 0 RC Lens 21 MF Zoran Tošić August 24 1987 (1987--) (age 20) 4 0 Partizan 22 MF Zdravko Kuzmanović September 22 1987 (1987--) (age 20) 6 2 Fiorentina

Recent Call Ups

The following players have also been called up to the Serbia squad after the 2006 World Cup.

Goalkeepers

Name	Date of birth	Club	Caps (goals)	Most Recent Call up
Dragoslav Jevrić[3]	July 8 1974	Maccabi Tel Aviv	43 (0)	v. Czech Republic, 16 August, 2006

Defenders

Name	Date of birth	Club	Caps (goals)	Most Recent Call up
Nemanja Vidić	21 October 1981	Manchester United	27 (2)	v. Portugal, 12 September, 2007
Ivica Dragutinović	13 November 1975	Sevilla	36 (0)	v. Portugal, 12 September, 2007
Mladen Krstajić	4 March 1974	Schalke 04	56 (2)	v. Portugal, 12 September, 2007
Marjan Marković	September 28 1981	Dynamo Kyiv	15 (0)	v. Portugal, March 28, 2007[4]
Aleksandar Luković	21 November, 1982	Udinese	8 (0)	v. Armenia, 11 October, 2006

Midfielders

Name	Date of birth	Club	Caps (goals)	Most Recent Call up
Ognjen Koroman	19 September 1978	Red Star Belgrade	36 (1)	v. Belgium, August 22, 2007[5]
Ivan Ergić	21 January 1981	Basel	9 (0)	v. Finland, June 2, 2007[6]
Aleksandar Trišović	25 October 1983	Red Star Belgrade	5 (1)	v. Portugal, March 28, 2007[4]
Stefan Babović	7 January 1987	OFK Beograd	0 (0)	v. Portugal, March 28, 2007[4]
Dejan Milovanović	21 January 1984	Red Star Belgrade	0 (0)	Training session, 5 February, 2007[7]
Saša Ilić	30 December 1977	Red Bull Salzburg	32 (4)	v. Norway, 15 November, 2006

Strikers

Name	Date of birth	Club	Caps (goals)	Most Recent Call up
Danijel Ljuboja	4 September 1978	VfB Stuttgart	19 (1)	v. Armenia, 11 October, 2006

World Cup 2006 squad

Main Article: 2006 World Cup squads (Serbia and Montenegro)

Competitions

2006 World Cup

See also: 2006 World Cup qualification (UEFA)

Serbia and Montenegro began their 2006 World Cup campaign by finishing first with an undefeated record in a their qualification group ahead of favorites Spain and Belgium. The Serbia and Montenegro team also allowed only one goal in the 10 matches, the best defensive record out all 51 teams participating in qualification.

In the group stage, Serbia and Montenegro lost their opening game to joint group favourite, the Netherlands. The final score was 1-0 after Arjen Robben scored the only goal of the game. They also lost their second game to Argentina 6-0, the country's worst ever international result. With the team's two losses and with Netherlands and Argentina winning both their games, Serbia and Montenegro could no longer qualify for the knockout matches, and was playing for pride alone in their final group game against Côte d'Ivoire. Despite having a 2-0 lead for much of the first half, the Elephants managed to come back and win 3-2, leaving Serbia and Montenegro with a disappointing 0-3-0 World Cup run.

UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying

Main article: UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying Group A

Standings

Team Pts Pld W D L GF GA GD  Poland 24 12 7 3 2 20 10 +10  Portugal 23 12 6 5 1 23 10 +13  Serbia 20 12 5 5 2 19 9 +10  Finland 20 12 5 5 2 11 6 +5  Belgium 15 12 4 3 5 13 14 -1  Armenia 9 10* 2 3 5 4 11 -7  Kazakhstan 7 12 1 4 7 10 20 -10  Azerbaijan 5 10* 1 2 7 5 25 -20

Results

September 2, 2006 20:15 CEST
	Serbia	1–0	Azerbaijan	Stadion Crvena Zvezda, Belgrade Attendance: 0 Referee: Kircher (Germany)
	Žigić 72'	Report

---

September 6, 2006 20:30 CEST
	Poland	1–1	Serbia	Stadion Wojska Polskiego, Warsaw Attendance: 5,000 Referee: Poll (England)
	Matusiak 30'	Report	Lazović 71'

---

October 7, 2006 20:15 CEST
	Serbia	1–0	Belgium	Stadion Crvena Zvezda, Belgrade Attendance: 35,000 Referee: Messina (Italy)
	Žigić 54'	Report

---

October 11, 2006 20:15 CEST
	Serbia	3–0	Armenia	Stadion Crvena Zvezda, Belgrade Attendance: 20,000 Referee: Kasnaferis (Greece)
	Stanković 54' (pen) Lazovic 62' Žigić 90'+ 2'	Report

---

March 24, 2007 19:00 [[UTC+6]]
	Kazakhstan	2–1	Serbia	Almaty Central Stadium, Almaty Attendance: 15,000 Referee: Hriňák (Slovakia)
	Ashirbekov 47' Zhumaskaliyev 61'	Report	Žigić 68'

---

March 28, 2007 20:30 CEST
	Serbia	1–1	Portugal	Stadion Crvena Zvezda, Belgrade Attendance: 55,000 Referee: Layec (France)
	Janković 37'	Report	Tiago 5'

---

June 2, 2007 19:15 EEST
	Finland	0–2	Serbia	Olympic Stadium, Helsinki Attendance: 33,615 Referee: M. González (Spain)
		Report	Janković 3' Jovanović 86'

---

August 22, 2007 20:45 CEST
	Belgium	3 – 2	Serbia	King Baudouin Stadium, Brussels Attendance: 19,202 Referee: Hauge (Norway)
	Dembélé 10' 88' Mirallas 30'	Report	Kuzmanović 73' 90+1'

---

September 8, 2007 20:15 CEST
	Serbia	0 – 0	Finland	Stadion Crvena Zvezda, Belgrade Attendance: 15,000 Referee: Braamhaar (Netherlands)
		Report

---

September 12, 2007 21:00 WEST
	Portugal	1 – 1	Serbia	Estádio José Alvalade, Lisbon Attendance: 47,000 Referee: Merk (Germany)
	Simão  11'	Report	Ivanović  88'

---

October 13, 2007 17:00 WEST
	Armenia	0 – 0	Serbia	Hanrapetakan Stadium, Yerevan Attendance: 10,000 Referee: Johannesson (Sweden)
		Report

---

October 17, 2007 21:00 [[UTC+5]]
	Azerbaijan	1 – 6	Serbia	Tofik Bakhramov Stadium, Baku Attendance: 9,000 Referee: Einwaller (Austria)
	Aliyev  26'	Report	Tošić  4' Žigić  22'  42' Janković  41' Jovanović  75' Lazović  84'

Remaining fixtures

• Serbia vs. Kazakhstan - Saturday 17 November 2007
• Serbia vs. Poland - Wednesday 21 November 2007

Notable players

Notable players that have played for the national team with at least 15 caps:

As Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro)

Serbia Goran Bunjevčević Goran Đorović Nenad Đorđević Predrag Đorđević Ljubinko Drulović Miroslav Đukić Goran Gavrančić Dejan Govedarica Vladimir Jugović Mateja Kežman Slobodan Komljenović

Darko Kovačević Nikola Lazetić Siniša Mihajlović Savo Milošević Zoran "Bata" Mirković Albert Nađ Dragan "Piksi" Stojković Dejan Stefanović Slaviša Jokanović Dragoslav Jevrić Zvonimir Vukić

Montenegro Branko Brnović Nenad Brnović Ivica Kralj Predrag Mijatović Željko Petrović Niša Saveljić Dejan Savićević

As Serbia

• Ivica Dragutinović
• Igor Duljaj