Sports Mole preview Thursday’s UEFA Nations League game between Russia and Serbia, including team and injury news.
Russia and Serbia begin your UEFA Nations League Campaign with a game of group B3 in Moscow on Thursday evening.
These two teams will be joined by Turkey and Hungary, with only the winners for 2022-23 moving up to Group A.
Game preview
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After 10 months with no fixture on the international scene, Russia and Serbia will welcome the opportunity to get back on the field when they resume their preparations for Euro 2020.
Although they will have ambitions to advance in this competition, hosting the 24-nation tournament will continue to be the focus next summer Stanislav Cherchesov and Ljubisa Tumbakovic.
During the First Nations League, Russia competed in a group that included Sweden and Turkey and only missed promotion through a single goal.
In the meantime Serbia played six games against Romania, Montenegro and Lithuania with four wins and two draws. This return was enough to outperform his group by two points.
While Serbia are the newbies to Section B, few people will face the Eagles for consecutive promotions, especially if they are motivated to build some momentum ahead of their Euro 2020 playoffs against Norway next month.
Tumbakovic hopes the next two games will prove to be beneficial Luka Jovic, who had a gloomy life at Real Madrid in the first 12 months after moving from Eintracht Frankfurt.
From a Russian point of view there will be a desire to keep the form with which they could qualify for next year’s big tournament with relative ease and only lost in their games against Belgium.
In the middle of their qualifying campaign, they recorded seven straight wins and overcame tests in the form of Scotland, Kazakhstan and Cyprus.
Cherchesov is now in charge of managing the transition of his squad, which consists of 10 players who are 31 years of age or older and seven players who have earned a cap or less.
Russia form (all competitions): WWWWLW
Serbia Form (all competitions): LWWWWD
Team news
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Given the 10-month hiatus, it’s unclear how each manager will choose the first game of the year.
As for Russia, each of the 11 players who played in the 4-1 loss to Belgium in late 2019 are in the squad.
Cherchesov is unlikely to make many changes on this site, despite the fact that he is 37 years old Yuri Zhirkov can find his place on the left flank in danger.
After he was only named as a substitute in the last game, Sergej Milinkovic-Savic should return to the center of the Serbian midfield.
Alexander Kolarov may move to a more well-known left-back role, which allows Stefan Mitrovic come in the middle of the backline.
Tumbakovic could return to a 4-4-2 formation to allow Jovic as a partner Aleksandar Mitrovic.
Russia possible starting line-up:
Guilherme; Fernandes, Semyonov, Djikia, Petrov; Ozdoyev, Zobnin; Ionov, Miranchuk, Zhirkov; Dzyuba
Serbia possible starting line-up:
Rajkovic; Milenkovic, Ni.Maksimovic, S.Mitrovic, Kolarov; Radonjic, Ne. Maksimovic, Milinkovic-Savic, Ljacic; Jovic, Mitrovic
We say: Russia 1-1 Serbia
Given the lack of sharpness in the game, don’t expect a hectic affair between two of the dark horses of European football. However, a lively encounter will continue to take place that may result in a multi-card tie.
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