Here we go again. It’s time for English football fans to put their faith in the national team, despite all those years of hurt. Will their unwavering support finally be vindicated? Or is there yet more misery in store for devout Three Lions followers?
First up at Euro 2024, the English face Serbia in what is a banana-skin opener if ever I’ve seen one. Read on four our Serbia vs England predictions.
Serbia vs England prediction
For the Serbia vs England match prediction, we believe the final score will be 2-1 in favour of England based on our analysis.
Despite what that recent game against Iceland suggests, this England team has bags of offensive quality and can do plenty of damage against a Serbian team that rarely keeps it tight, but do they have the defensive nous to keep the Serbs out? I’d say definitely not!
Here are our Serbia vs England predictions, explained in detail later in the article:
Both Teams to Score @ Evens with bet365
Dusan Vlahovic Over 0.5 Shots on Target @ 5/4 with bet365
Serbia vs England betting odds
Serbia vs England head-to-head statistics
This will be the first ever meeting between Serbia and England, not just at a major tournament, but overall.
Serbia vs England preview
This match will be played on 16/06/2024 at Veltins Arena in Gelsenkirchen. Kick off will be at 20:00 GMT.
What do we know about the Serbs? Well, as fans of the Premier League should be all too familiar with, they’ll certainly pack a punch with boisterous target man Aleksandar Mitrovic up top.
We also know that Mitrovic is far from the only offensive threat that lurks in this Serbian team as Juventus goal-getter Dusan Vlahovic is a very dangerous striker in his own right, while in Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, Filip Kostic and Dusan Tadic, they’ve got some pretty useful creators too.
They go into this game following a 3-0 drubbing of Sweden, but they don’t tend to keep too many clean sheets, losing 2-1 to Austria just a few days before that, while since early 2023, Cyprus and Sweden are the only teams that they’ve shut out.
What about England? As is always the case around this sort of time, there’s plenty of optimism surrounding the England team, but will that be the case after this game?
Despite what happened in that rather discouraging final warm-up fixture at Wembley, with Kane, Foden, Bellingham and Saka, just to name a few, this is a team with lots of offensive quality, so if they don’t threaten at this tournament, something really has gone wrong.
However, questions have been raised by many over the defensive quality in the Three Lions squad, questions which certainly weren’t answered against Iceland.
In truth, in 2024, it’s been a mixed bag for Southgate’s men, who’ve won only one out of four games, beating Bosnia, who failed to qualify for this tournament, by three goals to nil.
I won’t be too quick to judge this crop on their recent results, but off the back of that, I won’t be surprised if their entering the tournament as favourites quickly prompts laughter all round.
Serbia vs England Betting tips
Ahead of this much anticipated Euro 2024 shown between the Three Lions and the Eagles, I like two bets.
Both Teams to Score
For my money, this game has ‘Both Teams to Score’ written all over it and I’m not sure that early odds of even-money reflects that accurately enough.
As touched on above, this is not a Serbia team that keeps many clean sheets, so if the Three Lions with their embarrassment of offensive riches can’t score here, pack up and go home early.
The Serbs won’t just defend in this game, especially not after seeing a team like Iceland profit against England’s less than convincing rear-guard recently.
Moreover, this is a team that simply has too much offensive quality to merely look to contain, so expect them to threaten on the break, and at set pieces, where Dragan Stojkovic’s men can be particularly dangerous, what with the sheer amount of power and physical presence on show.
Both teams have scored in four of the last five games that Southgate’s men have played outside of England, with their only clean sheet on foreign soil since 2022 coming against minnows Malta.
Dusan Vlahovic Over 0.5 Shots on Target
Like I’ve said above, the Eagles have some threatening offensive players and Dusan Vlahovic is right up there with Mitrovic in terms of what he can offer.
This is a player who plies his trade at the height of Italian football, scoring 16 league goals for Juventus last season.
Not only did Vlahovic notch his share of goals for the Old Lady last term, he also registered an eye-catching 1.37 shots on target per 90 minutes, while in a Serbia shirt in 2024, his shots-on-target average per game stands at 2.24.
Those stats make him look like a steal at odds of 5/4 to register just a single shot on target in this Group C fixture.
Recap - Serbia vs England betting tips
To confirm, the following two bets are recommended ahead of Serbia vs England:
Both Teams to Score @ Evens with bet365
Dusan Vlahovic Over 0.5 Shots on Target @ 5/4 with bet365
