- Title: SERBIA: FOOTBALL/SOCCER - Serb confident of emerging from tough opening group
- Date: 25th May 2010
- Summary: VIDIC SURROUNDED BY YOUNG FANS POSING TO PHOTOGRAPHERS VIDIC SIGNING CHILDREN'S NOTEBOOKS
- Embargoed: 9th June 2010 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Serbia
- Country: Serbia
- Topics: Sports
- Reuters ID: LVA48VT3YGII6KZID0IHLIUC0UBG
- Story Text: Serbia, playing in their first major tournament as an independent nation are confident that they can emerge victorious from what is arguably considered the toughest opening group of the World Cup which includes Ghana, Australia and Germany.
Ajax midfielder Marko Pantelic is confident the Germans will be the first big team to fall against a revamped Serbian side.
"I don't know which one I should start with, let's say Germany, a team which has been for decades been among the top teams, so there is not need to talk to much about them. We have absolute respect but after the first referee whistle, all that respect will go down the drain. From that moment there will be eleven against eleven on the pitch, to prove who is better," Marko Pantelic told Reuters Television.
Pantelic had a four-year spell at Hertha Berlin before last season's move to Ajax Amsterdam and according to Serbian media, he is on the verge of moving back to the Bundesliga after scoring 20 goals in 33 games for the Dutch giants.
But for some players the task remains a difficult one. CSKA midfielder, Milos Krasic, thinks good preparation and a win in the opening game is very important to progressing deeper into the tournament.
"It's a very difficult group. Every team which is in the World Cup has quality. It's a difficult group but the Serbia team has shown it's capabilities and I think that they are afraid of us. So we have to prepare ourselves as well as possible and to start by winning our first game," said Krasic.
Radomir Antic, the Serbian national team coach has on Monday (MAY 24) final training session before going to Austria for final build-up.
Antic's list includes no surprises after he dropped strikers Miralem Sulejmani and Dejan Lekic, defenders Jagos Vukovic and Slobodan Rajkovic as well as midfielders Nemanja Tomic and Nemanja Matic.
He still has to leave out one player before the June 1 deadline for naming his final 23-man squad and having named four goalkeepers, fourth-choice Andjelko Djuricic is the most likely odd one out.
Serbia open their Group D campaign against Ghana -- coached by their compatriot Milovan Rajevac -- in Pretoria on June 13, before taking on Germany in Port Elizabeth on June 18 and Australia in Nelspruit five days later.
Should they advance into the last 16 the Serbians will meet the winners or runners-up of Group C, meaning that they have a fair chance of playing England for a quarter-final berth.
The two have never met since the former Yugoslavia's break-up and Antic, who played for Luton Town from 1980 to 1984, acknowledged it would be a tall order for the Serbians given that they have never beaten a top team as an independent nation.
Although Antic has suggested several times the present squad was superior in terms of depth, ability and team spirit, he remained confident that his team will have the right mental attitude to win games.
"The way of play depends on mentality of the nation that the team represents. I have said so many times, we will not start the game, doesn't matter who the opponent is, as an inferior side,. The fact is that in soccer you can lose but we will not lose any game before it starts," Radomir Antic told Reuters TV - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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