Serbia vs Portugal Betting Tips

There is nothing really riding on the game but Serbia will certainly feel they have a point to prove. Even excluding the events of their home game with Albania at the start of the campaign which left the Serbs with a mountain to climb, they have been very poor.

Their squad for this games includes the likes of Branislav Ivanovic, Aleksandar Kolarov, Nemanja Matic and Dusan Tadic, all of whom have forged big Premier League reputations while they have numerous other players who’ve impressed in major European leagues. With that sort of quality to call upon, you’d have thought Serbia would have been more than capable of securing a place at the 24 team European Championships but it was not to be.

They did salvage some pride with a 2-0 win away to Albania on Thursday night to dent their neighbour’s qualification bid and pick up only their 2nd win of the group. Their first victory came in their previous group game against Armenia so they do come into this in a bit of form and certainly they are likely to be the more motivated side.

Portugal secured a 1-0 home win over Denmark on Thursday to ensure they will be in France next summer. Although they have qualified relatively comfortably it has been a far from inspiring campaign from them and they’ve only netted 9 goals in the 7 group games so far.
Fabio Coentrao netted the winner when these sides met in Lisbon earlier in the group but it was a tight game and like all of Portugal’s wins in this group, the margin of victory was just a single goal.

They may use this game to experiment a little and perhaps give a start to a few of the players who helped them to the final of the European Under 21 Championship last summer. Belgrade isn’t an easy place to find your international feet though and for the first time since their ill-fated home game with Albania, they will have a crowd backing them.

Therefore Serbia could just edge this one and are worth backing in the ‘draw no bet’ market at 5/6.

This is the last competitive game they will have prior to the commencement of World Cup qualifying next Autumn so they’ll be keen for a positive result and with a powerful side to rely upon they could over-run the more technical Portuguese side and rack up a 2-0 win at 11/1.