England – Serbia

The Serbs will pose difficulties for the hosts.

With two rounds to go before the end of the qualifying stage for the World Cup in the European group K, the England national team has quelled all questions regarding the holder of the direct ticket. It is unlikely that there is anyone among the 'Three Lions' fans who expresses complete satisfaction with their team's play; however, they are consistently achieving results. Thomas Tuchel's work with the English side has even led to their no longer settling for victories over opponents like Andorra or Lithuania with scores of 1-0 or 2-0. This, however, has only happened in the recent matches. The England team has prematurely secured first place, pulling ahead of their closest pursuer, the Albanian team, by seven points in the standings. In fact, it was this Albanian team that recently shocked the Serbs with a victory in Belgrade. Before the concluding rounds, Serbia is in third place and trails the solitary competitor by one point. Despite the relative closeness of the positions, under the current circumstances, such a gap looks catastrophic for the Serbs. This is due to the calendar of the remaining matches. Serbia must win against one of the strongest teams in the world at Wembley and beat Latvia at home. However, it is also necessary for Albania to lose points in their away match against Andorra or in their final home match against an unmotivated England. Betting companies have deemed the hosts as the favourites for the upcoming encounter, offering a coefficient of 1.31 for their victory. Considering the tournament situation, the leadership of the Serbian Football Federation has already made a shake-up in the coaching position with an eye toward the future. Two weeks ago, Veljko Paunović became the coach of Serbia, having experience working with the country's youth and under-21 teams. It is unlikely that the new coach will be held accountable if the Serbs do not salvage their current dire state, but he will certainly be praised if the team performs somewhat better in London than they did in September and October. The Serbian players also have personal motivations for a positive result at Wembley. In the first round match, they lost to England at home with a score of 0-5. Perhaps the visitors will not be able to earn points, but they must ensure that the English concede their first goal in the qualifiers.