The Serbia national football team represents Serbia in men’s international football competition. It is controlled by the Football Association of Serbia, the governing body for football in Serbia. The national team played its first international game at the Summer Olympics in Antwerp in 1920. From 1945 to early 2003, the national team competed as Yugoslavia, although SFR Yugoslavia broke up in 1991. Following the dissolution of Serbia and Montenegro, Serbia has played as an independent nation since 2006, and qualified for the World Cup in 2010 and 2018.
About Serbia national football team in brief
The Serbia national football team represents Serbia in men’s international football competition. It is controlled by the Football Association of Serbia, the governing body for football in Serbia. The national team played its first international game at the Summer Olympics in Antwerp in 1920. From 1945 to early 2003, the national team competed as Yugoslavia, although SFR Yugoslavia broke up in 1991. Following the dissolution of Serbia and Montenegro, Serbia has played as an independent nation since 2006, and qualified for the World Cup in 2010 and 2018. At Both World Cup’s Serbia were eliminated at the group stage, but did record their most memorable occasion at the 2010 World Cup, beating bitter rivals Germany 1-0, with Milan Jovanović scoring the winning goal. Serbia usually use the home of Red Star Belgrade, the Rajko Mitić Stadium, as their home ground, but occasionally, the Partizan Stadium is also used. Serbia competed under the various forms of Yugoslav national teams where it achieved considerable success, playing the final at the 1960 and 1968 European Championships and finishing fourth at the 1930 and 1962 World Cups. Due to international sanctions against Yugoslavia, the team could not participate in 1994 World Cup qualifying nor the Euro 1996 qualifying process. As FR Yugoslavia joined FIFA and UEFA in late 1994, the team was available to participate in the 1998 World Cup qualifiers. In the qualifiers, Yugoslavia was drawn in Group 6 with Euro 1996 runners-up Czech Republic, Slovakia, Spain, Faroe Islands and Malta.
With the aggregate score of 12–1 against Hungary, Yugoslavia qualified for a World Cup. The New York Times suggested that Yugoslavia could easily be a semi-finalist in that year’s World Cup and the draw put the team in Group F alongside Germany, United States, Iran and Iran. The team won its first game 1–0 against Iran thanks to a goal from defender Sihajlovi Mihajlovic. The next game was a draw against Germany, with the next game being a 2–2 draw for Yugoslavia. After the draw, Yugoslavia saw itself face the Netherlands in the Round of 16, with Yugoslavia finishing second in the group with a better goal difference and winning the match 2-1. The match ended in a 2-2 draw and Yugoslavia entered the round of 16 with its sole attacker, Oliver Bierhoff, as the sole attacker for the Netherlands. The Netherlands won the game 2-0 due to an early goal in Nantes, but Yugoslavia responded with a 1-1 draw against the United States and won the next match 1-2 due to a late goal in Nantes. The game was played three days later, this time in Buenos Aires, resulting in a 1 0 loss to Argentina. The first ever team composed of Serbian and Montenegrin players exclusively, while Slobodan Santrač, a former Yugoslavia national team player, was named the team’s first ever manager. The historic starting eleven that represented Kingdom of SCS on its debut were: Dragutin Vrđuka, Vjekoslav Župančić, Jaroslav Šifer, Stanko Tavčar, Slavin Cindrić, Rudolf Rupec, Dragut in Vragović, and Jovan Ružić.
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