PORTUGAL-SERBIA 2:1 (1:0)

The continuation of the qualifying matches for the UEFA EURO 2016 in France brought the defeat of the National Team of Serbia against Portugal.

In the Round 4 of the European Qualifiers, Portugal defeated Serbia by 2:1 (1:0)

The match venue: “La Luz” Stadium in Lisbon, with favourable weather conditions.

The Match referee: Gianluca Rocchi,Italy.

Attendance: about 60’000

Goalcsorers: R.Carvalho in 10th min. of play and Coentrao 63rd min of play for Portugal and Nemanja Matić in 61st. min of play for Serbia.

Yellow cards. Coentrao, Moutinho (Portugal), N. Matić, Ljajić, Kolarov, Zor. Tošić (Serbia)

Albania won the match against Armenia 2:1(0:1) in Elbasan.

The National Team of Denmark was free in this round of competiiton and it played a friendly match against France.

The next match of the National Team of Serbia is on 13.06.2015 as a visitor against Denmark. Apart from this match, the National Team of Serbia will play the following matches until the end of the European qualifiers:

Serbia vs Armenia, 04.09.2015

Albania vs Serbia, 08.10.2015

Serbia-Portugal, 11.10.2015

In its previous matches, the National Team of Serbia played against Armenia, as a visitor, match ended as a draw – (1:1), then, as a home team, our National team lost a match against Denmark (1:3) and our team won the home match – Match forfeited – against Albania, but three points were deducted by UEFA’s decision.

Portugal: Patricio – Bosingwa, R. Carvalho (From 16th. min Fonte), Bruno Alves, Eliseu – Moutinho, Tiago – Nani, Coentrao (From 78th. min Quaresma) – Danny (From 85th. min                         V. Carvalho), Cr. Ronaldo.

Serbia: Stojković – Basta, Ivanović, Nastasić, Kolarov – R. Petrović, N. Matić – Laz. Marković (From 65th. min Đuričić), Ljajić (From 85th. min Škuletić), D. Tadić (From 78th min Zor. Tošić) – A. Mitrović.

Captain: Branislav Ivanović,

Head Coach: Radovan Ćurčić.

The Head Coach of the National Team of Serbia Radovan Ćurčić, who had a debut in that position in the qualifiers, selected a promising starting line-up. The National Team of Serbia was well “fulfilled” in all of the positions on the field of play and it indicated that the team could face the home team properly in the centre-field.

Our National team played in the defensive line as follows: Basta, Ivanović, Nastasić, Kolarov. Two defensive midfielders were: Radosav Petrović and Nemanja Matić. The wings position was for: Lazar Marković and Tadić. The forward was Mitrović, and behind him in a position of the central midfielder was Ljajić.

The National Team of Portugal had a slightly different formation. First of all, The home team played with two forwards from the start of the match: Danny and Cristiano Ronaldo and they had the assistance by Nani and Coentrao, both playing as a wing in their respective sides of the pitch.

The first half of the match presented the unconvincing play of the White Eagles. Our players did not come often to the opponent’s goal and practically they did not create any goalscoring opportunity. Portugal, at that time, played according to its wishes. They took away the centre of the field from our national team, they played closer to our goal and controlled the centre of the field. The players of the National Team of Serbia mostly focused on their half of the pitch, without many opportunities to go forward to the attacking zone.

The second half was almost the same. Our player did not manage to play more aggressive and they were not in the position to score more often, but Nemanja Matic scored a beautiful goal at that time. It was a volley kick, from the right side after the corner kick for our national team. Only two minutes after, Portugal scored for the second time, Coentrao was the goalscorer, being quicker than Basta and Stojkovic.