Serbia take on Jordan in an international friendly match on Friday.
The game will be played at Viola Park in Vienna, Austria, before Serbia travel to Bulgaria for a European Championship qualifying match four days later.
Match preview
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Indeed, rather than using a free matchday to rest players after a gruelling domestic season, Serbia boss Dragan Stojkovic has instead decided to keep his players in rhythm by arranging a winnable friendly against their forthcoming opponents.
Having opened their qualifying campaign with successive 2-0 victories against Lithuania and Montenegro in March, Stojkovic will be fully expecting his side to maintain their 100% record when they arrive in Bulgaria on Tuesday.
The Eagles will subsequently host Hungary in September in what could prove to be the pivotal encounter in Group G, although with two nations from each group automatically qualifying for Euro 2024, there is every chance that both countries will be lining up in Germany next summer.
Stojkovic in particular will be desperate to ensure that his players do not take their eye off the ball, having seen his own stock dramatically fall after Serbia crashed out of the World Cup in bottom place when failing to win any of their group games in Qatar.
Jordan, meanwhile, should arrive in Austria with plenty of confidence having won eight of their last 10 matches in all competitions.
Indeed, the Chivalrous Ones comfortably booked their place at the Asian Cup in January by dispatching Indonesia, Kuwait and Nepal in qualifying, while each of their last seven wins have come alongside keeping a clean sheet.
As such, Adnan Hamad - who scored six goals in 17 caps for Iraq during his playing career - is becoming a hugely popular figure in the Middle Eastern state, and there is every chance that they can escape from a group containing South Korea, Bahrain and Malaysia when they arrive in Qatar in January.
Having never progressed beyond the quarter-finals of the Asian Cup, Hamad will be hoping to make history for his adopted nation, with facing Serbia another huge test for them after acquitting themselves well despite losing 3-1 to Spain last November.
Team News
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Serbia will have to make do without key forwards Aleksandar Mitrovic, Luka Jovic and Dusan Vlahovic, meaning that Dejan Joveljic could lead the line and make only his fifth appearance for his country in the process.
Dusan Tadic is set to captain Stojkovic's side, but the former Guangzhou R&F boss is likely to name an experimental starting XI ahead of a more important fixture against Bulgaria on Tuesday.
Jordan, meanwhile, appear to have left 100-cap veterans Mohammad Al-Dmeiri and Baha Abdel-Rahman behind, after neither player featured in the defeat to Spain towards the back end of 2022.
However, the nation's record goalscorer Hamza Al-Dardour will be desperate to extend his impressive tally of 34 goals after bagging a brace against Philippines last time out.
Serbia possible starting lineup:
Petrovic; Babic, Gudelj, Masovic; Zivkovic, Lukic, Grujic, Mladenovic; Milinkovic-Savic, Tadic; Joveljic
Jordan possible starting lineup:
Al-Fakhouri; Haddad, Nasib, Al-Arab, Hasheesh; Al-Tamari, Al-Rawabdeh, Al-Samarneh, Saadeh, Al-Mardi; Al-Dardour
We say: Serbia 3-1 Jordan
With Jordan massively improving in recent times and Serbia set to rest several key players, we expect to see an entertaining encounter play out in Vienna on Friday.
However, the European outfit should still possess too much quality for their opponents, who are ranked almost 60 places beneath Serbia in the FIFA World Rankings.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Top tip
Brett Curtis
