November 23, 2022, 1:02 PM
November 23, 2022, 1:02 PM
Serbia is not afraid of Brazilwhom they will face in their debut in Qatar on Thursday, and will seek to play “with intelligence” to score points that will bring them closer to the round of 16, Serbian coach Dragan Stojkovic said on Wednesday.
“The game starts 0-0, so Brazil has a chance to win, but so does Serbia. We are not afraid of any team, including Brazil, because we don’t need to be afraid of anyone,” the coach said at a press conference in Doha.
Stojkovic, a World Cup player with Yugoslavia in Italy-1990 and France-1998, He assured that his team will deploy “the best football” to neutralize the powerful attack of Brazil, one of the strong candidates for the title in Qatar.
“Brazil is an excellent team, one of the best in the world. I think he has a golden generation right now. We expect a great game, very difficult, but as a team we have to focus on ourselves,” he said.
“Intelligence makes all the difference, and that’s the kind of football that We want to play,” he added. “We will try to score as many points as possible to pass the phase, that is our goal.”
But “if we don’t beat Brazil it won’t be the end of the world, we will play fair to make Serbia proud. If we lose, we will congratulate our opponents and continue to prepare. We are not going to give up easily, we will do everything possible to hinder their progress,” he said.
Serbia, which sent Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal to the play-off, has its most important men in attack: Aleksandar Mitrovic (Fulham, ENG), Dusan Vlahovic (Juventus, ITA), Dusan Tadic (Ajax, NED) or Luka Jovic ( Fiorentina, ITA).
“Brazil is a great team in group and individual terms, I agree with our coach, but we are focused on our great team and making our country proud of us”, said Tadic, captain of the Eagles.
Stojkovic did not confirm the starting eleven that will play with the Brazilians at the Lusail stadium (3:00 p.m.), and he was optimistic about the recovery of Mitrovic, author of 14 goals in thirteen games in the European qualifier and the League of Nations.
“Mitrovic is without pain and that is obviously good news,” said the coach, which, however, raised a question about Filip Kostic, from Juventus (ITA), key in midfield. “It’s a big question if he’s going to be with us tomorrow, because he has muscle problems,” he closed.
