Serbia and Sweden in Group A showdown

Sweden enter their final Group A fixture looking to avenge a crushing defeat against their old foes Serbia and in the process claim a place in the semi-finals.

• Although the UEFA European Under-21 Championship hosts hold a one-point advantage over Serbia heading into this deciding match, they should know better than to take anything for granted against opponents who overturned a three-goal deficit in the countries' qualifying play-off for the 2007 finals by winning 5-0 here in Sweden.

• After beating Belarus and losing to Italy, Sweden need only avoid defeat at the Malmö New Stadium to ensure their progress to the semi-finals. For Serbia, victory alone will suffice following their successive goalless draws with Italy and Belarus.

• Sweden have suffered more than their share of heartache against the Balkan nation in recent years. The two sides have met three times in competitive UEFA European Under-21 Championship fixtures, with a win apiece and one draw – but on each occasion Serbia had the last laugh.

• The full breakdown of those past meetings is:
2007 Qualifying play-off 
06.10.06 Serbia 0-3 Sweden, Novi Sad
10.10.06 Sweden 0-5 Serbia, Trollhattan
(Serbia win 5-3 on aggregate)

2004 Semi-finals
05.06.04 Sweden 1-1 Serbia and Montenegro, Oberhausen
(Serbia and Montenegro win 6-5 on pens)

• To qualify for the 2007 tournament in the Netherlands, Serbia staged a remarkable comeback from a 3-0 defeat in Novi Sad on 6 October 2006, winning the away leg 5-0 in Trollhattan four days later.

• In the first of those games an early double from Dušan Djurić (4, 9) put Sweden in control. Samuel Holmén added a third (73) to seemingly put the Scandinavian side on the brink of the finals.

• The lineups were:
Serbia: Damir Kahriman, Branislav Ivanović, Duško Tošić, Nemanja Rnić (Antonio Rukavina 76), Aleksandar Kolarov, Boško Janković, Dejan Milovanović, Nikola Drinčić, Predrag Pavlović (Milan Smiljanić 46), Miloš Krasić (Stefan Babović 60), Dragan Mrdja.
Sweden: Johan Dahlin, Fredrik Stoor, Andreas Granqvist, Karl Svensson, Oscar Wendt, Rasmus Lindgren, Erkan Zengin, Pontus Wernblom, Dušan Djurić (Sebastian Larsson 65), Samuel Holmén, Henok Goitom (Joakim Sjöhage 78).

• Serbia were quickly back in contention in the second leg, scoring two early goals through Dragan Mrdja (9) and Boško Janković (11). Stefan Babović levelled the aggregate scores in the 35th minute and Serbia completed the turnaround in the second half with strikes from Babović again (59) and Miloš Krasić (66).

• Of the current Sweden squad, Pontus Wernbloom, Marcus Berg and Johan Dahlin all featured in the second-leg defeat, goalkeeper Dahlin taken off at the break after conceding three first-half goals. Mikael Lustig, Mattias Bjärsmyr and Ola Toivonen were unused substitutes.

• The lineups were:
Sweden: Johan Dahlin (Marcus Sahlman 46), Fredrik Stoor (Sebastian Larsson 81), Andreas Granqvist, Karl Svensson, Oscar Wendt, Rasmus Lindgren, Erkan Zengin, Pontus Wernblom (Marcus Berg 63), Dušan Djuric, Samuel Holmén, Henok Goitom.
Serbia: Damir Kahriman, Branislav Ivanović, Duško Tošić, Aleksandar Kolarov, Milan Smiljanić, Boško Janković, Dejan Milovanović, Antonio Rukavina, Stefan Babović (Djordje Ivelja 89), Miloš Krasić (Nikola Drincić 76), Dragan Mrdja.

• The two sides also met in a friendly match on 10 September 2008 with Serbia again emerging victorious, Adem Ljajić scoring the only goal of the game on 85 minutes in Krusevac.

• The sides' other competitive encounter came in the semi-finals of the 2004 tournament in Germany when Serbia and Montenegro won 6-5 on penalties after a 1-1 draw in Oberhausen. Sweden looked on course to reach their first final when Babis Stefanidis fired them ahead on 36 minutes, but Miloš Marić struck back in the first minute of added time to force extra time. After Stefanidis had missed his spot-kick Nikola Mijailović stepped up to send Serbia through.

• Serbia captain Milan Smiljanić was an unused substitute when the sides played out a 2-2 draw in the UEFA European Under-19 Championship qualifying round in October 2003.

• At senior level the modern-day Serbia have not yet faced Sweden. As part of the former Yugoslavia, they faced the Scandinavians ten times with five wins, three defeats and two draws – the last of those meetings in September 1991 producing a 4-3 Swedish friendly victory in Solna.

Squad news

Serbia

• Against Belarus, Serbia coach Krčmarević made one change from the side that had drawn 0-0 with Italy in Helsingborg, bringing Marko Milinković into his front three, with Gojko Kačar dropping into midfield.

• Serbia still struggled to create opportunities, managing just ten goal attempts and three on target. Their troubles in front of goal are in marked contrast to the qualifying campaign where they finished as leading scorers alongside Germany with 26 goals from ten matches.

• Serbia's 8-0 success against Hungary on 7 September 2008 was the joint-biggest win in qualifying alongside the Czech Republic's victory over Liechtenstein by the same score. Kačar hit five goals against the Hungarians.

• Serbia's strike options were limited when Filip Djordjević was forced out of the squad after breaking a bone in his right foot in training two days before the tournament began.

• Krčmarević's squad has since been reduced to 22 after midfielder Nemanja Matić fractured the fifth metatarsal in his right foot against Italy.

• "We don't have ready-made solutions up front, having lost our first-choice forward Filip Djordjević and then another important attacking player, Matić, to injury," Krčmarević said.

• Ljubomir Fejsa and Ivan Obradović were booked against Italy and, like Nikola Petković, will be banned for one match should they see yellow against Sweden.

• Krčmarević took advantage of the extra day between games to put his players through a longer practice session at their training ground in Paarp on Sunday.

• Krčmarević, who has no injury worries, focused on preparing his players tactically to face Sweden.

• Serbia decided against having a training session at the Malmö New Stadium on the eve of the game – opting instead to train at their usual base in Paarp.

• Serbia are the only side yet to score in this competition and defender Nenad Tomović said: "It doesn't matter who scores the goal, even if it is our goalkeeper Željko Brkić – the most important thing is to see Serbia in the semi-finals."

• The Serbs have still to concede a goal but defender Nemanja Pejčinović warned that they faced a tough test against Swden's attackers. "Sweden have a strong forward line with Marcus Berg, Ola Toivonen and Emir Bajrami," he said. "They are very good in the air and we must be 100 per cent concentrated at every moment."

• Serbia have had impressive support in the stadiums with an estimated 2,500 fans at each of their games so far. There are more than 20,000 people from the former Yugoslavia living in the Malmo area and supporters have also travelled from Copenhagen and Germany as well as other Swedish cities.

• Pejčinović expects the Serbia fans to make themselves heard against the home nation. "We're playing against the host country so many supporters will be backing them, but don't forget we had great support from one part of the stand in the Malmo stadium and that will give us all additional motivation."

Sweden

• Bajrami, Berg, Rasmus Elm, Toivonen and Pontus Wernbloom are all one booking away from suspension. Bajrami was yellow-carded in the 5-1 curtain-raising win against Belarus, with the other four cautioned against Italy.

• After scoring five against Belarus, Sweden created numerous chances against Italy but were unable to take any until Toivonen struck after 89 minutes of the 2-1 Group A defeat. The Swedes had 21 shots of which only six were on target, compared with the Italian ratio of seven and three.

• "Mario Balotelli's sending-off greatly affected the game," Toivonen said. "They retreated into defence and we got to have most of the ball. We kept slogging away, but we were too weak inside the box."

• Sweden began with the same side in both matches. Coaches Tommy Söderberg and Jörgen Lennartsson made a double substitution on 66 minutes with Labinot Harbuzi and Martin Olsson replacing Gustav Svensson and Bajrami. In his 23 minutes of action, Olsson had three attempts on target, the same amount as the rest of the team combined.

• The squad took Sunday off with no scheduled training session or press activities. On Saturday the XI that had started against Italy recuperated while the rest of the players were put through an intense training session.

• Sweden should have a fully-fit squad available against Serbia despite several complaints affecting the group. Emil Johansson (finger) and Mikael Lustig (knee) have been nursing slight knocks; Harbuzi trained alone for the latter part of Saturday's session; and Denni Avdic left the same session early after suffering an allergic reaction to pollen.

• Berg's treble against Belarus was the first hat-trick in an U21 final tournament and Sweden's 5-1 win the second time a team had scored five or more in an U21 finals match. England hold the tournament record for their 6-0 triumph over Turkey in the group stage in 2000.