Serbia vs England Match Preview: Three Lions set out to inch closer to World Cup ticket | OneFootball

Just three days after seeing off Andorra to secure a fourth win in four matches, England are back in action on Tuesday when they visit the Stadium Rajko Mitic to face Serbia.

Both teams remain undefeated in the World Cup qualifiers ahead of their meeting in Belgrade.

England Preview

England remain defensively astute under the management of Thomas Tuchel, keeping clean sheets in each of their four competitive matches.

However, the attack was once again underwhelming in Saturday’s 2-0 triumph over Andorra.

The Three Lions opened the scoring courtesy of Christian Garcia’s own goal before Declan Rice made sure of the result midway through the second period.

England scored a whopping nine goals across both of their two meetings against Andorra during the 2022 qualifiers, but have tallied just three this time around.

The Three Lions will be content with the fact that they sit five points clear at the top of Group K and could potentially extend that gap to eight.

England defeated Serbia 1-0 in their only previous meeting at the 2024 European Championship.

Serbia Preview

Serbia will be confident of avoiding a defeat in their second-ever meeting against England, following a 1-0 triumph over Latvia on Saturday that extended their unbeaten run to seven matches.

Dusan Vlahovic’s 12th-minute opener got the job done for Dragan Stojkovic’s men to keep them second in the group, two points clear of Albania with a game in hand.

Serbia are unlikely to secure an automatic World Cup ticket by finishing top of the group, so they may have to navigate the play-offs if they are to qualify for a third straight edition of football’s biggest event.

Tuesday’s hosts have also kept clean sheets in each of their last four competitive outings, but will be wary of an England side aiming to extend their run of matches with at least one goal to 16.

Team News

Marcus Rashford was arguably England’s most ineffective attacker against Andorra and could make way for Anthony Gordon in the starting XI.

Ollie Watkins and Jarrod Bowen were unused substitutes, but could be utilised against Serbia.

Having not featured since the last international break in June, it was no surprise that Aleksandar Mitrovic had to come off the bench last time out as he crossed a century of appearances for Serbia.

Vlahovic has now scored in five of his last six outings for club and country, making him one to keep an eye on here.

England predicted XI (4-2-3-1): Pickford; Lewis-Skelly, Guehi, Burn, Livramento; Rice, Anderson; Gordon, Rogers, Madueke; Kane.

Serbia predicted XI (3-5-2): Petrovic; Pavlovic, Milenkovic, Veljkovic; Lukic, Katai, Ilic, Zivkovic, Kostic; Vlahovic, Mitrovic.