Injuries no obstacle for Serbia

Serbia coach Slobodan Krčmarević has backed his players to overcome Denmark in their play-off for a place in the 2009 UEFA European Under-21 Championship despite a series of injuries threatening to derail their campaign at the crucial moment. 

Krčmarevic optimistic
Forward Miralem Sulejmani and midfielders Gojko Kačar and Ljubomir Fejsa are ruled out, while midfielder Zoran Tošić and left-back Ivan Obradović are unavailable after being called up to the senior squad. Sulejmani and Kačar scored seven goals between them in Serbia's final Group 8 match against Hungary, yet Krčmarević is confident that even without them Serbia are strong enough to advance. "When you lose five players from your best XI you are in a difficult position, but I have faith in the squad I have at my disposal. I am optimistic," he said. "Denmark are a strong and very disciplined team, but the second leg is in Belgrade and that is to our advantage. I think we will be the winner."

Former glory
Serbia are contesting their fourth successive play-off and their third against a Scandinavian side, after victories against Norway for the 2004 championship and against Sweden for the 2007 event. Sweden, hosts of next summer's finals, will shudder to recall that play-off after they threw away a 3-0 lead from the away leg to crash out 5-3 on aggregate. Serbia went on to reach the final in their first major tournament as an independent nation and will take heart from their past success at this level. They were inaugural winners of the competition as part of Yugoslavia in 1978 and have continued to be a significant force at this level ever since. They played the final as Serbia and Montenegro in 2004, the semi-finals in 2006, and the final again last year in the Netherlands.

'Hard job'
"Success is almost an obligation for us now and we want to continue the run, but this is a new story and tradition can only help up to a point – mentally," Krčmarević said. "It also puts pressure on us because everybody now expects us to get to Sweden. Of course I share the fans' wishes, but I also know how hard the job in front of us is. I told my players to concentrate on the games against Denmark and forget about everything else."

'Fantastic opportunity'
Denmark last qualified for the tournament in 2006 and have extra motivation to repeat the feat, with next summer's showpiece taking place just across the Oresund strait in neighbouring Sweden. Having attained the play-offs as the fourth-best qualifying group runner-up, Denmark will try to make the most of what coach Keld Bordinggaard calls a "fantastic opportunity". To that end, he has recalled Nicklas Bendtner, although the Arsenal FC striker is available only for Wednesday's second leg. Bordinggaard has also drafted Søren Ulrik Vestergaard, as cover for injured midfielder Thomas Enevoldsen, and forward Bo Storm.