The Super Eagles will face Serbia in their next international friendly match in London on Tuesday after the Nigerians beat Poland 1-0 on Friday.
The game is a continuation of their preparation towards this year’s FIFA World Cup in Russia.
Ahead of Tuesday’s clash completesportsnigeria. com’s JAMES AGBEREBI list SEVEN interesting facts about Serbia, who lost 2-1 to Morocco in a friendly in Turin, Italy also on Tuesday…
– SERBIA ARE NICKNAMED THE EAGLESNigeria’s senior men’s national team is known all over the world as the Super Eagles.
The Serbian senior men’s national team is also called the Eagles.
– THEY ARE CURRENTLY 34TH IN LATEST FIFA RANKINGS
In the FIFA rankings released on March 15th, 2018, Serbia maintained number 34 in the world.
Following the latest rankings, Serbia are 18 places above the Super Eagles who occupy number 52.
– SERBIA TOPPED THEIR EUROPEAN 2018 WORLD CUP QUALIFIER GROUPSerbia qualified automatically for the 2018 FIFA World Cup after topping Group D in the European qualifiers.
They finished top on 21 points, just two points ahead of second-placed Republic Ireland who had to drop to the play-offs.
Other countries in Serbia’s qualifying group were Wales, Georgia, Moldova and Austria.
– SERBIA WILL FACE BRAZIL, SWITZERLAND, COSTA RICA AT 2018 WORLDSerbia have been drawn against five-time FIFA World Cup winners Brazil in Group E of this year’s tournament.
Apart from Brazil, they will also take on Switzerland and Costa Rica in the group.
– CURRENT SERBIA SQUAD FULL OF EXPERIENCE Among notable players in the current Serbian squad are Manchester United midfielder Nemanja Matic, former Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic and Aleksandar Kolarov who once featured for Manchester City, all top players and veterans of big clubs in big leagues.
Others are Dusan Tadic of Southampton and Matija Nastasic who was a former player for Manchester City.
– FORMER MANCHESTER CITY DEFENDER ALEKSANDAR KOLAROV IS CAPTAIN OF SERBIAAleksandar Kolarov, who is a former Manchester City defender, currently captains the Serbian senior men’s national team.
He is assisted by Manchester United and former Chelsea midfielder Nemanja Matic.
– SERBIA’S FIRST WORLD CUP AS AN INDEPENDENT COUNTRY WAS AT THE 2010 EDITION IN SOUTH AFRICAFormerly a part of Yugoslavia, Serbia became independent in 2006 and qualified for their first World Cup in South Africa 2010.
The team was drawn in the same group with Germany, Australia and Ghana.
After one win (surprisingly a 1-0 win against Germany) and two defeats (1-0 and 2-1 defeats to Ghana and Australia respectively), Serbia crashed out in the first round.