Portugal vs Serbia 26/03/19

26 March 2019

Serbia’s European Championship qualifiers get underway with a road trip to Lisbon as they take on Portugal at the Estádio da Luz.

A Seleção das Quinas failed to wrap up all three points against Ukraine on the opening matchday being held to a goalless draw in front of the home crowd. It was their third successive stalemate – second that ended with the same 0-0 scoreline. Although the hosts are unbeaten in all seven of their post-World Cup outings (W3, D4) just one of those three wins have come at home. Portugal’s main strength is a solid defensive unit that has kept a clean sheet in three of their last seven games, restricting their rivals to a maximum of one goal per match in another three. However, even with the return of Cristiano Ronaldo, Portugal’s struggling in the final third has continued, as Fernando Santos’ men failed to score over 1.5 goals per match in four consecutive home clashes.

On the other hand, the visitors go into this meeting off the back of an encouraging 1-1 road draw with Germany in a friendly challenge that has seen Serbia stretch their unbeaten run to seven games. Just like Portugal, the Eagles have dodged a failure after exiting the final tournament, pulling off three wins in seven games (W3, D4). But, unlike their rivals, Mladen Krstajic’s players have been far more successful in the final third, bagging 2+ match goals four times in the post-World Cup period, while failing to find the net only once in the process. Another promising fact for Serbia is that they’ve racked up a seven-game road unbeaten streak (W4, D3), preserving a clean slate on five occasions during the run.