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Most of you will remember Serbia’s coach, Dragan Stojkovic, as a player. For those who don’t, here’s a sensual little treat from Italia 90.
The players on a yellow card
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Serbia Strahinja Pavlovic, Sasa Lukic, Uros Racic
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England Dan Burn
“Evening Mr Smyth!” writes Adam Hirst. “Be good to see England getting a welcome this warm in Belgrade tonight. Would see more people enjoying these international breaks.”
Our man David Hytner takes the walk through the tunnel in Belgrade.
All hail Endi Kol
Our production editor Philip Cornwall is in Belgrade and has sent in an email. Given his sub-editing expertise, it’s no surprise what’s on his mind.
One odd thing about how they do names here: they transliterate them within the Latin alphabet, or transliterate to Cyrillic and then reconvert to the Latin alphabet.
Jacob Steinberg
The FA wrote to travelling England fans to remind them that Serbia have been sanctioned with a partial stadium closure by the Fifa as a punishment for discriminatory fan behaviour during their recent match against Andorra.
The note informs England fans about procedure should they experience any racist or discriminatory language or behaviour at any England fixture: “FA staff will be visible and available throughout the match. Please reach out to a member of staff if you feel uncomfortable. They will be dressed in England training attire.”
Serbia team news
Dragan Stojkovic makes four changes to the team that beat Latvia 1-0 on Saturday. Kosta Nedeljkovic, Nemanja Maksimovic, Veljko Birmancevic and Strahinja Erakovic come in for Aleksandar Katai, Filip Kostic, Milos Veljkovic and Luka Jovic.
Serbia (possible 3-2-4-1) Petrovic; Erakovic, Milenkovic, Pavlovic; Nedeljkovic, Maksimovic, Lukic, Birmancevic; Zivkovic, I Ilic; Vlahovic.
Subs: Rosic, V Ilic, Gudelj, Jovic, Mitrovic, Kostic, Veljkovic, Babic, Stulic, Racic, Samardzic, Katai.
England team news: Tuchel makes four changes
Ezri Konsa, Tino Livramento, Anthony Gordon and Morgan Rogers replace Dan Burn, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Marcus Rashford and Eberechi Eze in the England side. That means another start for Elliot Anderson, who made an impressive debut against Andorra on Saturday.
Lewis-Skelly isn’t even in the matchday squad. I assumed he was injured but apparently that’s not the case.
England (4-1-4-1ish) Pickford; James, Konsa, Guehi, Livramento; Anderson; Madueke, Rogers, Rice, Gordon; Kane.
Subs: D Henderson, Trafford, Quansah, J Henderson, Eze, Rashford, Burn, Spence, Gibbs-White, Loftus-Cheek, Watkins, Bowen.
Preamble
Hello and welcome to Guardian Sport’s live, minute-by-minute coverage of Serbia v England in Belgrade. Let’s start with our chief football writer David Hytner’s preview.
Harry Kane has played before at the Red Star Stadium in Belgrade. It was with his former club Tottenham in 2019 and it is for good reason that the England captain lists it among his top three most intimidating away venues. The others, for the record, are Marseille’s Vélodrome and Galatasaray’s Rams Park.
Kane went to the former with Spurs in 2022 and it did not matter that the Virage Nord was closed after incidents involving the Marseille support. He sampled the ear-splitting whistles of the latter with his current club, Bayern Munich, in 2023. Red Star’s ground is called the Rajko Mitic Stadium these days but the basic malevolence has not changed.
“It’s just the walk from the changing room to the pitch – it feels like a mile long,” Kane said. “There’s a lot of fans, you hear a lot of noise, a lot of banging. So, yeah, it was pretty hostile.”
Kane returns with England for the World Cup qualifier against Serbia on Tuesday night and it promises to be a frenzied occasion, even if almost 15% of the stadium will be empty on Fifa orders. The governing body has doled out the punishment after the discriminatory behaviour of Serbia’s fans against Andorra in June.
The pressure will come not only from the hardliners in the home seats but from those in the visiting enclosure and many more on sofas up and down England. Because this is a tie that has the trappings of a moment of truth.
