SERBIA SATISFIED WITH THE EUROPEAN U-17 CHAMPIONSHIP DRAW

At the EC in Croatia our U-17 Team in the group with Germany, Republic of Ireland and Bosnia and Herzegovina

Serbian National U-17 Team (players' generation of 2000), coached by Perica Ognjenović knows its rivals at the European Championship in Croatia (3rd – 19th May). Serbia is in the Group C with Germany, Republic of Ireland and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The first match will be with the Republic of Ireland, then the second opponent is Germany, and maybe even the decisive one will be played with Bosnia and Herzegovina.

– I can't say I am not satisfied – said the head-coach Perica Ognjenović right after the draw. – Irish are physically strong team, Germans, as usually, are the leading power in every age category, and we are familiar with Bosnia as a well-known ex-YU football school. Our goal is to qualify in the knock-out phase and we will do everything in our power to do so. If I look at other groups, above all the one with Spain, Italy and host Croatia, then we definitely have to be satisfied with the draw.

Serbian team qualified to the EC in Croatia after two rounds of qualifications. In the first one, tournament host was Italy and at that time our team's head-coach was Ilija Stolica. Stuparević, Đelek and their teammates won Macedonia in the first match (3:1), then were better than Albania (2:0) and in the match without any result importance Italy won us with 0:2.

In the second or elite round of qualifications, the U-17 team was taken over by Perica Ognjenović. They left for Scotland and in the first match won Switzerland (2:1), and in the second the host was better with the minimal result. In the final, decisive match we played with Montenegro and won 1:0 (scorer Stuparević).

Portugal won the last title of the European Champion with their triumph in Azerbaijan in 2016, and it is interesting that Portuguese did not qualify for the final round in Croatia.

Group A
Croatia, Spain, Turkey, Italy

Group B
Scotland, France, Hungary, Faroe Islands

Group C
Germany, Republic of Ireland, SERBIA, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Group D
Netherlands, England, Norway, Ukraine