Spain receives Serbia in the Nuevo Arcángel of Córdoba this Tuesday, a meeting that closes this October break of the UEFA Nations League corresponding to the fourth day of the group stage. The Spanish team seeks to close this second window with full victories after the one achieved in Murcia last Saturday against Denmark, a victory that marked the leadership of the group. Follow this Tuesday’s game live, open and free from 8:45 p.m. TVE’s 1 and the streaming platform RTVE Play.
Luis de la Fuente starts the game with: David Raya, Pedro Porro, Laporte, Vivian, Cucurella, Zubimendi, Mikel Merino, Fabián; Álex Baena, Oyarzabal and Morata. Serbia, for its part, plays with an eleven made up of: Rajkovic; Nedelkovic, Erakovic, Milenkovic, Pavlovic, Birmancevic; Nemanja Maksimovic, Zdjelar, Samardzic; Joveljic and Mitrovic leave.
With three wins and a draw in four games, Spain would go to the next break with the qualification for quarterfinals practically in the pocket, beating a direct rival for one of the two places at stake. La Roja is the leader with seven points, ahead of Serbia by three and mathematically passing to the next round in the absence of a victory against the Balkans. In the next two days the game would be played to be first or second, predictably with Denmarkhis previous rival, who should not find too many difficulties against a Swiss which is bottom with full defeats in the three rounds already played.
The Spanish team maintains a slightly favorable balance against Serbia, although historically it has shown itself to be a tough rival to beat, both at its current moment and when it was forming as the old team. Yugoslavia. Since they met in a friendly in 2012 with only Serbia, only that victory and the draw from the previous day have been recorded. Before, like Serbia and MontenegroSpain achieved two draws on the way to the 2006 World Cup in Germany, being Luis Aragonés selector. In it Vicente Calderon La Roja took the lead with a goal Raul Gonzalezbut the then Colchonero equalized for the Balkans Mateja Kezman.
Under the name of Yugoslavia matches with different fortunes are remembered, such as the agonizing victory of the Euro 2000 with the goal of Alfonso Perez in added time, the elimination in the round of 16 of the Italy 1990 World Cup with the double of his current coach, Dragan Stojkovicthe second of them a direct foul in extra time. We have also recently remembered Spain’s victory in the ‘Little Maracaná’ in 1977, on the way to the Argentina World Cupwith the goal of Ruben Cano. In total they have been 10 wins for the Spanish team, five victories for the Balkan team and eight draws, with 26 goals to 19 in favor of Spain.
