Belarus looking for change of luck

The players of Belarus and Serbia will need little introduction when they meet in their second Group A fixture in Malmo.

• The two sides met in qualifying for the UEFA European Under-21 Championship and Slobodan Krčmarević's Serbia enjoyed the upper hand by beating Belarus 3-1 at home and earning a 1-1 draw away. With Belarus also defeated by Serbia and Montenegro in the final tournament in 2004, Yuri Kurnenin's team will be seeking a change of fortune along with three points at the Malmö New Stadium.

• Belarus will be desperate to improve on their opening performance in the tournament against Sweden in Malmo on Tuesday, when they succumbed to a 5-1 defeat – equalling their worst-ever competitive result at this level. Serbia opened with a goalless draw against Italy in Helsingborg on the same day.

• The full run-down of their past meetings is:
2009 Qualifying Group 8
08.09.07 Serbia 3-1 Belarus, Belgrade
20.11.07 Belarus 1-1 Serbia, Vitebsk

2004 Final tournament Group A
01.06.2004 Belarus 1-2 Serbia and Montenegro, Oberhausen

• The teams finished level on 17 points in Group 8 with identical records of five wins, two draws and one defeat. But Serbia earned first place thanks to their superior head-to-head record.

• Goals from Nikola Petković (6), Ljubomir Fejsa (61) and substitute Nikola Ðurdic (87) gave the Eaglets victory over Belarus in Belgrade in September 2007. Sergei Krivets struck the visitors' last-minute reply. The lineups were:
Serbia: Bojan Šaranov, Stefan Babović (Nikola Gulan 87), Gojko Kačar, Andrija Kaludjerović (Nikola Ðurdic 79), Nikola Petković, Milan Smiljanić, Nenad Tomović, Ljubomir Fejsa, Marko Jovanović, Ivan Radovanović, Miralem Sulejmani (Dušan Tadić 59).
Belarus: Anton Kovalevski, Nikolai Osipovich, Aleksandr Martynovich, Igor Shitov, Aleksandr Volodko, Dmitri Platonov (Aleksei Kuchuk 74), Leonid Kovel (Aleksandr Ozehtsiarou 74), Dmitri Komarovski, Mikhail Afanasiev (Sergei Kislyak 61), Igor Maltsev, Sergei Krivets.

• Two months later the teams drew 1-1 in Vitebsk, Krivets giving Belarus a 48th-minute lead and Zoran Tošić levelling ten minutes later. The lineups that day were:
Belarus: Pavel Chesnovski, Nikolai Osipovich, Aleksandr Martynovich, Igor Shitov, Leonid Kovel, Sergei Krivets, Dmitri Komarovski, Mikhail Afanasiev (Dmitri Platonov 66), Sergei Kislyak (Aleksandr Volodko 62), Anton Putilo, Dmitri Verkhautsou.
Serbia: Bojan Šaranov, Nenad Tomović, Ljubomir Fejsa, Gojko Kačar, Slobodan Rajković, Nikola Petković, Milan Smiljanić, Miralem Sulejmani (Ivan Radovanović 90+1), Filip Djordjević (Milan Perić 83), Stefan Babović, Zoran Tošić (Vladimir Bogdanović 79).

• The countries' first competitive meeting at this level came in June 2004 at the final tournament in Germany, when the team then known as Serbia and Montenegro came from behind to defeat Belarus 2-1 in Oberhausen – a result that carried them into the semi-final and eliminated their opponents.

• Although Belarus opened the scoring that day through Oleg Shkabara, they lost Timofei Kalachev and Aleksandr Hleb to red cards and lost the match to goals from Serbia duo Danko Lazović and Dejan Milovanić. Serbia went on to reach the final where they went down 3-0 to Italy.

• Pavel Chesnovski, Leonid Kovel, Dmitri Komarovski and Mikhail Afanasiev were part of the Belarus side that beat Yugoslavia 2-1 in a qualifying round fixture for the UEFA European U17 Championship in October 2002. Milan Smiljanić was on the losing team that day.

• Nikola Gulan netted Serbia's final goal in a 4-0 European U19 Championship Elite round win against Belarus in May 2008 – a match in which Zivko Zivković also appeared.

Squad news

Belarus

• The 5-1 defeat against Sweden was Belarus's heaviest in a final tournament and equals their worst competitive result at this level. They lost to Norway by the same score on 5 June 2001 in the qualifying group stage for the 2002 UEFA European U21 Championship.

• Mikhail Afanasiev made a national-record 39th U21 appearance in the match, overtaking Yuri Zhevnov's mark.

• Assistant coach Georgi Kondratiev replaced the suspended Kurnenin on the bench but was powerless to prevent his side falling to defeat, despite their opening the scoring with Sergei Kislyak's powerful 33rd-minute strike. Kurnenin will be back on the bench for the meeting with Serbia.

• "In the first 35 minutes we were equal to them and we even scored, then something happened and I can't explain it," Kurnenin said. "The Swedish team were more organised, had more desire and that was reflected in the result."

• Belarus trained at the Malmö Old Stadium on Wednesday morning before Kurnenin gathered his players together in the afternoon to analyse the game. During the morning session those who had started against Sweden were restricted to a few laps around the stadium, while the substitutes and reserve players took part in a full workout. All 23 players were fit with no injuries to report.

• Belarus pair Sergei Krivets and Aleksandr Martynovich were booked against Sweden and will receive a one-game suspension if they collect another booking against Serbia.

Serbia

• Serbia's satisfaction at their opening draw with Italy was tempered by the loss of midfielder Nemanja Matić to a broken metatarsal in his right foot, meaning he will play no further part in the tournament.

• Matić returned to Belgrade on Wednesday and Krčmarević fears he will be sorely missed. "He was very important for our game," said the coach. "He is fast, has good technique, is able to play a defensive role and it is very difficult for us to replace him."

• Nemanja Tomić, who replaced Matić against Italy, hurt his right ankle in the closing moments and was absent from the squad's training session in Paarp on Wednesday lunchtime.

• Krčmarević considers it a must-win fixture for Sweden. "This next round we have to win – we have to do this if we want to be in the quarter-finals," he said, adding that it would help Serbia's prospects if the Italy v Sweden match on the same day produced an outright winner.

• Defender Jagoš Vuković made his competitive U21 debut against Italy.

• Nikola Petković was booked against Italy and will receive a one-match ban with another caution.