Euro 2016 Qualifiers: Portugal vs Serbia preview

March 28, 2015
By: Nemanja Lazarevic

Portugal vs SerbiaPortugal recovered well from the poor start to the campaign and they now have a chance to virtually eliminate one of the rivals for a top 2 finish.

Serbia already sit five points behind the top two teams in the group and they have no choice but to try and win at Estadio da Luz.

Portugal traditionally struggle in the qualifying campaigns, only to save their best performances for tournament finals, but they were unable to prove their worth at the 2014 World Cup, crashing out in the group stage.

And when the Seleccao also lost at home to Albania in the opening Euro 2016 qualifiers, national team chiefs decided enough was enough and brought former Greece coach Fernando Santos to replace Paulo Bento.

The change on the bench proved to be just what the team needed as they went on to defeat Denmark and Armenia in the next two qualifiers, before also beating Argentina in a friendly.

As a result, the Seleccao are brimming with confidence ahead of the clash with out-of-sorts Serbia and they are 1.57 (4/7) favourites to extend the winning run.

Luis Neto, Raul Meireles and Miguel Veloso did not make the squad, but Sporting Lisbon starlet Joao Mario has been recalled.

Real Madrid defender Pepe has done some light training of late, but he is not expected to start against Serbia, with Bruno Alves and Ricardo Carvalho tipped to form the centre-back pairing.

Probable starting line-up (4-2-3-1): Patricio – Bosingwa, Carvalho, Bruno Alves, Coentrao – Tiago, William – Nani, Danny, Quaresma – Ronaldo.

Having shown a great deal of potential at the end of the previous campaign, Serbia were tipped by many to qualify for the Euro 2016 finals without too many problems.

However, as they usually do, the Eagles seriously complicated things with several under-par performances and now sit well adrift of their rivals for a place at the tournament finals.

Serbia picked up just one point from matches against Armenia and Denmark, while they were left empty-handed after the clash with Albania was interrupted as they were awarded a win, but had three points deducted at the same time.

Even so, Radomir Curcic’s charges still have a chance to revive their qualifying campaign and they can be backed at 7.50 (13/2) to win in Lisbon.

The new coach could not call Filip Djordjevic, Milan Bisevac and Zdravko Kuzmanovic through injury, but Roma starlet Adem Ljajic returns to the side.

The three captains Branislav Ivanovic, Aleksandar Kolarov and Nemanja Matic are all battling injuries, but should still be named in the starting line-up.

Probable starting line-up (4-2-3-1): Stojkovic – Basta, Ivanovic, Nastasic, Kolarov – Gudelj, Matic – Tosic, Tadic, Markovic – Mitrovic.

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