France avoided a huge embarrassment at the start of their Euro 2012 preparations, having come from two goals behind to beat Iceland at home, whereas Serbia could do little to avoid defeat to under-strength Spain in Switzerland.
Laurent Blanc used the Iceland friendly to remove any doubts over his final squad selection for the European Championship and he opted to leave Yoann Gourcuff and Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa out of the side, while injured striker Loic Remy also missed the cut.
That was hardly a surprise considering the dismal season Gourcuff had at Lyon and the inexperience of promising defender Yanga-Mbiwa.
With the game against Serbia the final high-profile friendly before the start of the final tournament, Blanc is likely to field a very strong line-up in Reims, which makes les Bleus 1.57 (4/7) favourites with William Hill to extend their winning run to three games.
Anthony Reveillere and Gael Clichy are expected to start even though they are likely to miss out on the starting line-up in the opening game against England, whereas Yann M’Vila and Franck Ribery should start as well.
Probable starting line-up (4-2-3-1): Lloris – Reveillere, Mexes, Koscielny, Clichy – Cabaye, M’Vila – Valbuena, Nasri, Ribery – Giroud.
Rejuvenated Serbia side proved worthy opponents to under-strength Spain in St Gallen, Switzerland, but two defensive mistakes ended up costing them a positive result.
The Eagles were, nonetheless, able to take plenty of positives from the game against La Furia Roja and will now try to fare a bit better against les Bleus.
Toulouse full-back Pavle Ninkov and Red Star youngster Srdjan Mijailovic have returned into contention after missing the Spain game, but Fiorentina playmaker Adem Ljajic was sent home for refusing to sing the national anthem.
Mihajlovic is set to continue his rotation policy, but the team to face France will not be weaker than the one that lost to Spain.
While the Serbs are in for a difficult task in Reims, a motivated and disciplined performance could give them a chance to avoid defeat and Serbia are 2.50 (3/2) with Stan James not to lose.
Probable starting line-up (3-4-2-1): Brkic – Ivanovic, Maksimovic, Rajkovic – Ninkov, Fejsa, Matic, Mladenovic- Jankovic, Tadic- Scepovic.
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