World Cup 2014 Opponents Profile: Serbia

At their best Serbia have had a FIFA ranking of 13 (in September 2009, March 2010 and July 2010) while at their worst they were still significantly higher than Scotland’s current placing in 47th.

The history of Serbia’s national team is complex and until 2006, Serbia in it’s current state did not even exist.

Serbia had a national team from 1919 to 1921 but this changed between 1921 and 1992 when Serbia was part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1918-1943) and then the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1945-1991).

Despite this change, the Football Association of Serbia has been a member of FIFA since 1921 and a member of UEFA since 1954.

It is due to an agreement between these two bodies that the current Serbian national set-up is regarded as the reincarnation of the Yugoslavian national team.

The set-up was unique in that Serbia inherited full status, results and achievements from Yugoslavia – something that had never happened previously with any other national team.

The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia had its first game on December 23, a friendly against Brazil, almost two years after it was formed in April 1992. This new team consisted entirely of Serbian and Montenegrin players – the first manager was Slobodan Santrač.

It was five years after they were first formed that the team won a game – 1-0 in a friendly against Uruguay – on March 31, 1997. Incidently, this also marked the first ever goal thanks to Savo Milošević.

Their first ever World Cup qualifying win came in a 3-1 win over the Faroe Islands in 1998. It was also against the Faroe Islands that the team had their largest ever win when they beat them 8-1 in the same campaign.

The 1998 World Cup was the team’s first appearance at the international tournament and they were drawn in Group F alongside Germany, the USA and Iran. They went on to collect wins against Iran and the USA but were consigned to an unlucky draw against Germany. Despite their strong campaign Germany were victorious as the group leaders.

Despite their bad luck at the 1998 World Cup, the team’s impressive performances was enough to secure them consistently high FIFA rankings in the years to follow.

At the next big tournament for the team they were drawn against Croatia in the Euro 2000 qualifiers – the first meeting of the two teams since Yugoslavia broke up. They were also drawn against the Republic of Ireland, Macedonia and Malta. Both games against Croatia resulted in draws. However, the team did well enough to qualify and knock Croatia out of the Championship.

However, the team were unlucky to qualify for the World Cup in 2002 due in part to political unrest alongside disappointing results under new manager Milovan Đorić. They were also unable to qualify for Euro 2004 due to a string of disappointing results.

The team, now Serbia and Montenegro, redeemed themselves in the 2006 World Cup qualifying campaign with an undefeated record and only one goal allowed in all 10 games. They did not fare so well in the group stages, however, and loses to the Netherlands, Argentina and the Ivory Coast ensured they crashed out of the competition.

In 2010, Serbia only made it as far as the first round in the World Cup.

As it stands, Serbia are currently in third place in the Euro 2012 qualifiers and have taken eight points from six games in their group with Italy, Slovenia and Estonia.

The Orlovi (Eagles) currently use the Stadion FK Crvena Zvezda (capacity 55,538), home ground of Red Star Belgrade, but with plans to upgrade to a new stadium it is not yet clear where their match against Scotland will be played.

There is currently no benchmark for how the two teams will fare when they meet as Scotland and Serbia have never played against each other.

Written by Sarah McLean