England face Serbia in the hostile Rajko Mitić Stadium in Belgrade on Tuesday night in the first real test for the Three Lions since Thomas Tuchel took over as the Three Lions’ head coach
Thomas Tuchel finally faces a night of reckoning as England boss.
It will be 328 days from when he was unveiled last October to England’s World Cup qualifier in Serbia on Tuesday night. Even though Tuchel only officially started on January 1, the German has had a pretty easy ride up to now. Five games, four wins and England have yet to be properly tested in a competitive fixture.
Four wins in Group K – but two of those were against Andorra – and the only upset was in a friendly against Senegal in June. And finally we might get an insight into what Tuchel’s England are about in the loud, intimidating bear pit of the Rajko Mitić Stadium in Belgrade.
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England have the best World Cup qualifying record in Europe – unbeaten in 35 with 27 wins from those games – but actually Serbia’s is pretty daunting, too. Serbia are 32nd in FIFA’s world rankings – well below England’s arguably false position in fourth – but they have lost just one of their last 24 World Cup qualifiers.
Their home record is even better: they have lost just one of their last 28 since 2001. That was against Belgium in 2012. This, amid the backdrop of a red-hot atmosphere and a stadium notorious for noise and being intimidating will be a proper test for Tuchel’s men.
Tuchel said: “Of course, it is always the opportunity and I’ll always see it like this. This game is the opportunity and I think it will bring out the best in us that we are here in Belgrade. We have seen a little bit of my team already and of course we want to take steps and it is necessary we take steps tomorrow and I think we will, because we will face an opponent who wants to beat us and is not just afraid to lose.
“It is their stadium and we are here to steal all three points and I am looking forward to it. We are ready to go. It’s our first away game like this, a very old traditional famous stadium and I think the fans, the occasion and opponent will bring out the best from us, and I’m looking forward to it.
“That’s the beauty of it and if you want to go to a World Cup and play for the national team, experiencing this is the beauty. The Champions League is the same. Tomorrow is one of these nights. Lights are on. Big crowd and an emotional sporting country. And we’re up for it.”
Tuchel says that his coaching team have stressed the importance of being well prepared for the occasion and also the tactical challenge of Serbia. Andorra sat deep, defended with five across the back and Tuchel expects Serbia to do similar – but says their wing backs will be much more attacking and they will hit on the break.
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Tuchel added: “They will attack us a bit more aggressively. It’s important that we match this emotional approach and intensity. Normally all the teams who play intense against them get the ball. This is also important for us and then if you have the majority of the ball you need to find solutions.
“We have talked about the offensive patterns of Serbia. We just talked about football and we had a tactical training session to get our adjustments right –how we initiate the pressure, where to initiate the pressure, and that’s what the talk was all about.
“Tomorrow we will do our offensive meeting as normal and go from there. This is like the most difficult structure to break down, a 5-4-1. We will face it tomorrow I think.”
If they struggled to rise to the occasion against Andorra, then there can be no such excuses in Belgrade.
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