Denmark v Serbia facts

Denmark and Serbia have been regular rivals at UEFA European Under-21 Championship level and meet again at Trieste's Stadio Nereo Rocco in the final round of Group B games.

• Denmark have three points having lost their opening fixture to Germany 3-1 before beating Austria by the same scoreline on matchday two; Serbia, on the other hand, followed a 0-2 reverse against Austria with a 6-1 defeat by Germany, their heaviest ever in the U21 finals.

• Serbia are therefore bottom of Group B, three points behind Denmark and Austria with Germany leading the way on six, and cannot qualify for the semi-finals as the best runners-up overall.

• To have any hope of finishing top of the group, Denmark must beat Serbia and hope Austria do the same to Germany, in which case, with all three teams level on six points, final positions would be determined by results between them. Denmark will finish first in the group if they win and Germany lose 2-0.

Previous meetings
• This is the teams' eighth competitive U21 meeting, with Denmark having won three of the previous seven and Serbia two. The Danes, however, have had considerably the better of the goalscoring; they have found the net 12 times in those games to Serbia's five.

• This is the second time in three U21 final tournaments the sides have been in the same group. In 2015, goals from Rasmus Falk and Viktor Fischer earned Denmark a 2-0 matchday three win in Prague and took them into the semi-finals as the winners of Group B; Serbia finished bottom of the section. That was also the teams' last fixture.

• The six contests prior to that 2015 game all came in qualifying. The teams shared two draws in the 2013 preliminaries, 0-0 in Serbia and 1-1 in Denmark – but, while Serbia finished first in the section and Denmark second, both were subsequently eliminated in the play-offs for the final tournament, by England and Spain respectively.

• Serbia won 1-0 both away and home against Denmark in the play-offs for the 2009 tournament to reach the finals, where they were unable to progress beyond the group stage.

• Denmark recorded two emphatic wins against Yugoslavia in qualifying for the 1992 competition, winning 3-0 in Aalborg and 6-2 in Belgrade. The Danes finished top of the section with Yugoslavia second, and went on to reach the semi-finals, losing 3-0 to eventual winners Italy.

• Denmark's Jacob Bruun Larsen and Ivan Šaponjić of Serbia were both on target in a 2-2 European U19 Championship elite round draw in March 2016. Daniel Iversen, Rasmus Kristensen and Jacob Rasmussen also featured for Denmark, with Luka Jović and Aleksandar Lutovac in the Serbia line-up.

Form guide
Denmark
• This is Denmark's third successive U21 final tournament, and a fifth participation in the eight or 12-team finals. They were eliminated in the group stage in 2006, 2011 on home soil and 2017, but did reach the semi-finals in 2015, losing 4-1 to eventual champions Sweden.

• Two years ago in Poland, the Danes finished third in Group C behind Italy and eventual champions Germany having collected three points from their three games (W1 L2).

• Their results in the 2019 finals mean Denmark have won five of their 14 group stage games in the final tournament overall, losing seven.

• A place in the 2015 semi-finals equalled Denmark's most successful U21 campaign; they also reached the last four in 1992 having previously got to the quarter-finals in 1978 and 1986.

• Denmark qualified as the winners of Group 3, with 23 points from ten fixtures (W7 D2 L1), and were unbeaten in their last five games (W3 D2). They scored 30 goals, including at least one in every game.

Serbia
• Serbia have qualified for the third tournament in a row, and the seventh time for an eight or 12-team finals. Their last three finals campaigns – in 2009, 2015 and 2017 – all ended winless in the group stage.

• Two years ago in Poland, Serbia finished third in Group B behind Spain and Portugal, picking up one point from their three matches. Their defeats by Austria and Germany mean they are without a win in their last 12 games in the final tournament (D4 L8).

• They were runners-up in 2004 and semi-finalists in 2006, both as Serbia and Montenegro, and 2007 runners-up as Serbia. As Yugoslavia they won the 1978 final and were runners-up in 1990, also reaching the last four in 1980 and 1984.

• Serbia were one of five teams to qualify unbeaten for the 2019 finals, finishing with 26 points – four clear of Austria – at the top of Group 7 after eight wins and two draws in their ten fixtures. Their last two qualifiers finished goalless, meaning they had not scored in 357 minutes of competitive football before Andrija Živković's 85th-minute penalty against Germany on matchday two.

Links and trivia
• Robert Skov made his senior Denmark debut on 10 June as they defeated Georgia 5-1 at home in a UEFA EURO 2020 qualifier.

• Nikola Milenković and Jović started both of Serbia's recent UEFA EURO 2020 qualifiers, against Ukraine (0-5 away) and Lithuania (4-1 home), Jović scoring in the latter. Also involved against Lithuania were Saša Lukić and substitute Živković.