‘No awe towards anyone’ – Pavlovic praised for neutralising Lamine Yamal in Serbia-Spain | OneFootball

Serbia were able to keep the European champions at bay last night as they earned a 0-0 draw at home against Spain, and Strahinja Pavlovic did his bit by neutralising Lamine Yamal.

As Radio Rossonera write, Serbia managed to get a point against a heavily-fancied Spain team and it could have been even better as Milan’s Luka Jovic missed a golden opportunity to give them the lead after half an hour.

What stood out though was the excellent performance by the Rossoneri’s summer signing Pavlovic, who started the game playing on the left of a three-man defence, with Nikola Milenkovic and Strahinja Erakovic the other central defenders, and Veljko Birmancevic the right wing-back.

What that meant is that he was tasked with keeping tabs on Lamine Yamal, Barcelona’s teenage sensation who really shone at Euro 2024 as De La Fuente’s team went all the way. Dani Olmo played next to him, with Ayoze Perez up front.

The stats portal Sofascore gave him a 7.2 rating for his performance, while Corriere dello Sport gave him a 7.5 as he ‘managed to limit Yamal’s incursions’, even bringing the ball forward into the Spain half on a few occasions.

The Serbian source BLIC also highly praised the performance of the 23-year-old after a good European Championship campaign and a good start to life at Milan: ‘He confirmed the character of a boy who shows no awe towards anyone’.