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SERBIA TEAM NEWS: Captain Dusan Tadic starts
Dragan Stojkovic has made three changes to his starting line-up from loss to England.
Captain Dusan Tadic, as expected, starts after coming off the bench against England.
Tadic replaces Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, with the playmkaker looking to supply Dusan Vlahovic and Alexander Mitrovic in attack.
Filip Mladenovic comes in for Filip Kostic, who is out of Euro 2024 through injury, while Ivan Ilic replaces Nemanja Gudelj.
Serbia: Rajkovic; Veljkovic, Milenkovic, Pavlovic; Zivkovic, Lukic, Ilic, Mladenovic; Tadic; Mitrovic, Vlahovic
Serbia preparing in Munich despite quit threat
Well, I can safely report that Serbia look to be taking the pitch in just under an hour for the match against Slovenia.
One wonders whether the Serbia FA threat will act as an unwelcome distraction for Dragan Stojkovic’s side heading into this match.
Following the loss to England, another defeat today could render the quit threat meaningless as Serbia’s last-16 hopes would be effectively extinguished.
Team news on the way…
Albania and Serbia both facing UEFA action
Worth mentioning in relation to the Serbian FA’s threat that both Albania and Serbia are facing UEFA charges Euro 2024.
UEFA charged the Serbian FA with two offences following their defeat by England on Sunday – the throwing of objects and the transmitting of a provocative message ‘unfit for a sports event’.
The latter is understood to relate to the displaying of a flag linked to a paramilitary movement that was engaged in ethnic cleansing during the Yugoslav wars.
The governing body also launched an investigation into claims monkey noises were aimed at England players during the clash. An inspector has been appointed to carry out a disciplinary probe ‘regarding alleged discriminatory behaviour’, though, a resolution is not expected until after the group stages.
Albania have been charged for incidents during their match with Italy. A pitch invader halted the game in the dying moments of the game and that incident comprises one of the charges.
The charges were for the ‘throwing of objects’, ‘lighting of fireworks’, ‘invasion of the field of play’, and ‘transmitting a provocative message unfit for a sports event’.
Today’s big news is that the Serbian FA have made the astonishing threat that they could quit Euro 2024.
The Serbian FA are demanding UEFA impose strict punishments on Croatia and Albania following offensive chants during their 2-2 draw in Hamburg on Wednesday.
Both sets of supporters could be heard shouting ‘Kill the Serbs’ during their clash.
‘What happened is scandalous and we will ask UEFA for sanctions, even at the cost of not continuing the competition,’ Serbian FA General Secretary Jovan Surbatovic said.
‘We will request UEFA to punish the federations of both selections. We don’t want to participate in that, but if UEFA doesn’t punish them, we will think about how to proceed.
‘We were punished for the cases of fishing and our fans behaved much better than the others. One fan was fined for racist abuse and we don’t want it to be attributed to others. We Serbs are gentlemen and we have an open heart, so I appeal to the fans to remain gentlemen.’
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Good afternoon!
Welcome to Mail Sport’s live blog for this afternoon’s Group C clash between Slovenia and Serbia.
Neither side were able to win their opening match with Slovenia drawing against Denmark, while Serbia suffered a narrow 1-0 defeat to England.
Both sides could really do with a victory in Munich this afternoon to boost their chances of reaching the knock-out stage.
The build-up to this match has been overshadowed somewhat by events off the pitch.
More on that in a moment…
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