Brazil is favourite, but Vlahovic will explode in Qatar, says former Serbian player

Serbian fans are excited about the national team’s prospects for this year’s World Cup in Qatar.

With forwards Aleksander Mitrovic and Dusan Vlahovic enjoying a great moment, the Balkan team will seek a better performance than the one obtained in Russia, where they were eliminated in the group stage of the World Cup.

“Our team looks good for the Cup. We have a very good coach, Dragan Stojkovic, and we have top players in their teams like Mitrovic, Tadic, Savic, Vlahovic, who for me will be the best striker in the world in a year or two. Few forwards have his quality. And I think that in the Cup he will explode,” said Serbian Milinko Pantic, a former Yugoslavian national team player and Atletico Madrid idol, at an event organized in Madrid by LaLiga, with the presence of Sheet.

The hope that Pantic has in Vlahovic is given by the good season of the 22-year-old athlete, who took a career leap in the middle of the Italian Serie A dispute, when he left Fiorentina for Juventus.

The Serbian, who scored seven goals in 14 games for the Turin club, is trying to adapt to the new environment and confirm the expectations placed on his arrival at Juventus. Also counting his goals for Fiorentina, Vlahovic has scored 23 times in 34 appearances in Serie A — four fewer than Lazio’s top scorer Ciro Immobile.

This Wednesday (11), he returned to swing the net. Taking advantage of the rebound, he scored the second for the alvinegro team in the duel with Inter Milan, in the final of the Coppa Italia. At that time, Juventus went on to win by 2 to 1. But the rival equalized and, in the extra time, closed the triumph in 4 to 2.

In England, even in the second division, Aleksandar Mitrovic’s numbers are impressive. In 44 Championship matches against Fulham, league champions and promoted to the elite, the 27-year-old striker scored 43 goals, a record in the competition’s history in a single season.

Both Vlahovic and Mitrovic – who competed in the 2018 World Cup – will start next season to keep their footing calibrated and reach the Qatar World Cup in November in good physical and technical shape.

Serbia will debut in the World Cup against Brazil, on November 24th. It will be the reunion between the selections after the Brazilian victory by 2 to 0 four years ago, in Russia, during the first phase. Cameroon and Switzerland, another opponent that shared a group with Brazil and Serbia in the last World Cup, complete the bracket.

Milinko Pantic did not play World Cups with the then selection of Serbia and Montenegro, but was part of the qualifying cycle for the 1998 edition, in France. He, who says that Serbs like the nickname and recognize themselves as “Brazilians of Eastern Europe”, sees the group as difficult, but believes in the possibilities of the Balkans.

“In the last World Cup, we also had Brazil and Switzerland in the group. They say that Cameroon is the fourth force, but it’s not easy, the Swiss play well, and Brazil are favorites [a conquistar o título]. But I believe that Serbia can be a surprise in the World Cup”, completes the Serbian, Spanish and King’s Cup champion for Atlético de Madrid, now coach.