At the first participation in the European Championship after 24 years, our national team did not celebrate and ended the participation after the first round in the last place in the group, with two draws and one defeat. And what is especially disappointing, with the idealess and boring game, which few provided during the first stage of the tournament in Germany
At the premiere appearance at the European Championship, the national team of independent Serbia found itself in the same situation as in all previous major competitions in which it participated, namely three world championships - in the last game in the group, it needed a victory in order to advance to the second round. – in South Africa 2010 (2:1 loss to Australia), Russia 2018 (2:0 loss to Brazil) and Qatar 2022. (loss 3:2 against Switzerland). Even in relation to the World Cup played a little more than a year and a half ago, the Serbian national team proved to be weaker, and did not shine there either. On top of that, the last rival in the group, the selection of Denmark, was never defeated by Serbia, and everything said that the sad scenario would repeat itself.
That's how it was, although for the first time in the last round, Serbia was not defeated, but a goalless draw was not enough to pass among the 16 best teams.
BORING AND IDEALESS
The weak performance of the Serbian national team at the premiere in Gelsenkirchen was, as usual, tried to be covered up by the conclusions that Dragan Stojković's team held the ball longer in the second half, forced the favored England to defend and won several half-chances, but all this was shown in the greater part of the match with Slovenia as seen many times before self-deception and obfuscation of the problem. Our national team did not function flawlessly under the leadership of Pixie even during the greatest successes crowned by the victory over Portugal in Lisbon. Even then, it was seen and known that the team compensates for its shortcomings, especially in the back and middle line, with combativeness, unity and courage, and also plays for the goal more and without much calculation, which, with good results, satisfied the fans. After the lackluster games in the qualifiers in a rather weak group, and especially after the two games in Germany, it turned out that we were once again among the national teams that play idealess and boring football.
And the defeat against England was part of a logical series of bad games and results since being eliminated in the first round at the World Cup in Qatar, and it further discouraged (scared) both the coach and the players. Despite the heroism and vowing not to give up, the Serbian team entered the match with Slovenia with an even more defensive setup and only thanks to that rampart in front of the goal, and the inaccuracy of the Slovenian attackers, did not concede a goal in the first half. In the continuation, Stojković's chosen ones finally resembled the team, but only for moments, so the Slovenians crowned their better game with a goal in the middle of the half. After several changes, the Serbian team went all-or-nothing and it turned out that they were lucky, because Luka Jović managed to equalize in the last moments of stoppage time and extend their hope for a place in the second round.
It was shown again that we are by far the slowest team in transition and that most players after passes do not continue their movement towards the opponent's goal, and even less someone wants to dribble. Despite the slow transition to the attack and the long circulation of the ball around the Slovenian defense, the Serbian national team created several potential chances, but missed them all. Lazar Samardžić (24) and Veljko Birmančević (26) brought life towards the end, not being afraid to break through the Slovenian defense, and their persistence and sacrifice contributed the most to Slovenia being pushed to the finish line and finally succumbing.
photo: apLuka Jović and Dušan Tadić, after the match with Denmark
THE LOGICAL END
Numerous justified criticisms after the lucky draw against Slovenia forced coach Stojković to try in the last meeting in the group with a team that had never played together before. The previously unconvincing Sergej Milenković Savić, as well as the inconspicuous Dušan Vlahović, were dropped from the starting line-up, and captain Dušan Tadić had to return to the bench, while the aforementioned Samardžić and the experienced Srđan Mijailović got their chance, and Gudelj returned to the starting line-up. Again, the selector opted for the defensive, even though only the victory led us to the second round, so in the first half, the Serbian selection only successfully defended itself and at the same time directed only one shot at the goal of the Danish goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel. At halftime, Stojković made changes and played a slightly more offensive line-up that finally reached the opponent's goal, but the Danish players were still more dominant and offensive. Only in the last twenty minutes, Serbia was an equal rival and threatened more seriously on several occasions, but it was not enough to achieve the necessary victory.
And so, after the World Cup in South Africa, Russia and Qatar, and at the European Championship, we finished the competition in the first round, again like in Qatar without a victory, but now with an even more impersonal and harmless game. Before the trip to Germany, head coach Stojković extended his contract with the Football Association of Serbia for another two years and is expected to try to take the national team to the World Cup in the USA in 2026, but it is possible that after another bad edition of the team on the big stage and big of the number of omissions and blunders that he made from Qatar to here - he gets fired, of course, along with a substantial financial compensation that he certainly secured in the contract.
THE RETURN OF SPAIN
Apart from the larger initial part, the rest of the text was concluded on Tuesday afternoon when the outcome was known only in groups A and B, and hence the observations for some teams may turn out to be wrong, if in the last round they show themselves in a different light and create surprises. All in all, the EURO in Germany has so far brought a lot of good games and very exciting endings and twists in the last minutes, as well as a few surprises, and everything takes place in front of full stands and mostly in a good mood and singing fans (except for the fans from the three Balkan countries , but about that in a separate text).
The teams of France and England, which were considered the main favorites before the championship, and are still given great chances - did not show anywhere near their potential, especially "Gordie Albion", but both of them with half strength reached four points and already secured passage to the second round. At home, Germany shone in the first meeting with Scotland (5:1), then it was safe in the duel with Hungary (2:0), and when its chances for the title were equal with the favored French and English, a draw followed in the derby of the group. with Switzerland, elected in the nick of time, which once again raised doubts about the possibility of the "panzers" to find themselves on the European throne after almost three decades. And so far, Spain has shown the most, the fourth favorite according to the bookmaker's ranking and the value of the team - with a maximum of nine points, it is placed in the round of XNUMX and has acquired the status of the main favorite among many experts and commentators. The Portuguese also have a full performance, but in two games, they have already secured the first position in their group and are rightly still in the innermost circle of serious contenders for the final.
The strong Belgian national team improved its impression after an unpleasant premiere against Slovakia (1:0 defeat) in a duel with a high-quality and hearty team from Romania (2:0), and the current European champions, the Italians, luckily reached second place in the group (they won Albania, against Spain they were outplayed in every sense, and in the duel with Croatia they came in stoppage time), but that's how the "azuri" often got through the group stage and in the end reached the finals. The Dutch didn't shine either, but with a victory over Poland and a draw with France, they almost certainly secured passage to the round of XNUMX.
First of all, the Swiss and Austrian teams deserve positive evaluations. Under the leadership of coach Murat Jakin, the Swiss national team seems powerful and rightly deserves the status of "black horse" favorite, someone who can go far and surprise the favored teams, as they did until the last minute of stoppage time against home Germany. Also, Austria, led by coach Ralf Rangnik, proved to be an excellently composed and persistent team: they lost to France with an own goal and then routinely beat Poland, and they too were included in the circle of potential surprises of the tournament.
Among the better-ranked national teams, Croatia failed the most, which was first convincingly defeated by Spain, and then struggled with Albania and drew only one point (2:2), and finally drew with Italy (1:1), and with only two the point won has little chance of advancing to the round of XNUMX as the third-placed team. Admittedly, they were not lucky because the Albanians and the Italians equalized in stoppage time, but with only one well-played half-time - the second in the meeting with the Azzurri - they did not deserve more.
FIGHTING OUTSIDERS
Of those who were included in the underdogs before the championship, the Slovenian national team performed the best, winning draws in the matches with Denmark and Serbia, with the fact that they were seconds away from victory in the second match. The Albanians did not disappoint either, regardless of being eliminated, because they were in a very strong group and won honorable defeats in the duels with Italy and Spain and drew a point in the match with Croatia.
Romania was convincing against Ukraine, and then succumbed to the powerful Belgium, but also kept a good chance of qualifying for the second round. Slovakia shone against Belgium, but then lost to Ukraine, and in Group E, all teams have three points before the last round. Hungary was fighting and had its chances in defeats against Switzerland and Germany, and then in the tenth minute of stoppage time, it won against Scotland and three points, which most likely open the door to the second round and give it a chance to improve the impression.
With Portugal from Group F, anyone can make it through, and Turkey has the best chance. In that group, the selection of Georgia drew attention with its play and effort - it was defeated by Turkey, although it could have scored a point, and it was completely equal, if not better, in the duel with the Czech Republic.
And the Czech national team is one of those that showed the least at the European Championship, and there are also the national teams of Scotland and Poland, as well as ours, at least according to the game in the first two rounds.
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