International Friendly: Belgium Friendly is a Vital Warm Up for Serbia 

Belgium vs Serbia

Belgium host Serbia for an international friendly on Wednesday, and we’re expecting a big crowd at the King Badouin Stadium in Brussels for what promises to be a fascinating clash.

While the Red Devils, under Domenico Tedesco, have already qualified for the European Championships in Germany next year, his opposite number Dragan Stojkovic leads the Eagles into a crucial Euro 2024 qualifier against Bulgaria on Sunday. So while this game is a chance for Belgium to experiment, Serbia will have a careful eye on their next qualifying match.

The Eagles come into the match on the back of a huge result, beating Montenegro 3-1 while Belgium’s game against Sweden was abandoned following the tragic shooting of two Swedish fans. After going through qualifying unbeaten, Tedesco will be keen to keep his team’s momentum rolling before they face Azerbaijan next week, while Stojkovic will see this game as the ideal preparation for his final push to Germany.   

Talking Points

Tedesco’s chance to look at his young stars

With the Red Devils already booked for Euro 2024, Tedesco can be pleased with his start as Belgium boss, but he will be acutely aware that the real business begins next summer. The so called Golden Generation of Belgium has occupied the top spot of the FIFA World Rankings for much of the last decade…but they haven’t won anything. They were World Cup semi-finalists in 2018 and reached the European final way back in 1980; but many Belgians and neutrals really expected a team packed with talent, the likes of Vincent Kompany, Thibaut Courtois, Kevin de Bruyne and Romelu Lukaku, to pick up some silverware.

De Bruyne is currently out injured but he’ll expect to be in Germany, while Lukaku is in a rich vein of form, scoring ten goals in qualifying, but Tedesco needs to bring through the next generation quickly to have a team capable of seriously challenging next summer.          

Manchester City’s Jeremy Doku is a superstar in the making and it will be well worth watching the Belgium vs Serbia highlights if the livewire winger makes his mark against Serbia, while PSV Eindhoven’s exciting young striker Johan Bakayoko might also make an appearance. Attacking midfielder Leandro Trossard, at 28 years of age, has more experience but he has taken a step up since his move to Arsenal and he could become a key player in Tedesco’s Euro plans. 

Serbia’s fine tuning for Bulgaria clash  

While Belgium have already booked their place at Germany 2024, Serbia are almost there, sitting second in Group G and five points ahead of Montenegro in third; and if they can see off Bulgaria at the weekend Serbia can start to plan their summer trip. Here at SBOTOP we’ll bring the latest news and updates from Euro 2024 this week and Serbia is certainly a nation we expect to make it to Germany. Ranked 25^th in the world by FIFA the Eagles are 48 places above Bulgaria, but the visiting Lions have nothing to lose, and that makes them a dangerous opponent. 

The Serbs are without midfield general Sergej Milinkovic-Savic as he is struggling to shake off a knee injury, but Stojkovic has plenty of experience in his squad. Al-Hilal’s Aleksandar Mitrovic may well lead the Serbian line; he’s the all time top scorer with 57 goals for the Eagles, while 23 year old Juventus striker Dusan Vlahovic is also in the squad for these next two games. But I suspect the Eagles’ boss will use his best players sparingly against Belgium and make sure they are ready to meet the Bulgarians, so we may see little of Vlahovic, his Juve colleague Filip Kostic and Sevilla defender Nemanja Gudelj. The key players may get some minutes but unlikely a full game.

History

Over the past five meetings, Belgium have won the most recent three, while the other two encounters resulted in a win for Serbia and a draw.

In terms of recent form, Serbia have two wins and two losses from the last four games while Belgium come into this friendly on the back of six wins and two draws in this calendar year.

Betting Tip

The Belgium vs Serbia betting odds are pointing to a home win and that makes a lot of sense when you look at the priorities of the two teams. With the draw at 3.73 and a Serbia win at 4.95 all three results are just abut in play, but while Belgium will be keen to play an expansive game and entertain their fans, Serbia will be more cautious as they look forward to a big game at the weekend. 

The Red Devils are still the second best team in the world, behind only Brazil according to the FIFA rankings, and I expect them to come through this friendly with a lively win.

 

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