We have another day of three matches at Euro 2024 on Thursday and we begin in Group C where two sides go in search of their first win at the tournament in Munich when Slovenia go up against Serbia.
Slovenia got off to a better start to their campaign than Serbia but both teams will know they need to win a game at some point and this represents the best chance for them to do it so an entertaining affair is expected here.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the ITV1 channel in the UK with an extended build-up beginning at 1pm ahead of the 2pm kick off.
Slovenia
I think it is fair to say that Slovenia would have gone into the tournament as the team most expected to finish bottom of Group C within the outside world but they showed plenty of good stuff in their 1-1 draw with Denmark and if they settle into the competition and perform even better here then there is every chance that they could come out on top in this match. This one feels bigger for Slovenia because they have England to come in their last game.
Slovenia really caught the eye going forward. We all knew that Benjamin Sesko would be a threat in this tournament but they had some good support to him and on another day could have picked up the three points against the Danes. They will want to tighten up a touch defensively but it wasn’t like Denmark put them under huge amounts of pressure or that Slovenia were hanging on for dear life at any point. A repeat performance gives them every chance here.
Serbia
Serbia came up short in their opening game against England but they will be well aware that they got the hardest opponent out of the way and they did so with the least amount of damage having only gone down 1-0. You got the impression that their overriding aim was exactly that and if they happened to pick something up on the fly they would certainly have taken it. They are going to need to have more about them in the tournament from here on in though if they are to make progress.
Serbia set up well defensively against England and managed to keep control of the game when England threatened to open them up in the first half an hour but it was disappointing that they seemed to show a real lack of intent to impose themselves on an English defence which was makeshift and felt there for the taking. They are going to need to ditch that approach and start playing front foot football from here on in.
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Team News
Benjamin Verbic managed to get some minutes off the bench in the 1-1 draw with Denmark and he will be pushing for a longer role in this second game of the tournament. If he isn’t fit to start the Slovenians could be unchanged.
That won’t be the case for Serbia though as they will be forced into a change with Juventus winger Filip Kostic ruled out of the tournament with the knee injury he picked up against England. Dusan Tadic is expected to come in having surprisingly been left on the bench to begin that game.
Betting
Every now and again in these tournaments we get some situational contest to a game which makes the betting potential a little easier to find and that is the case with this match where both teams really need to get a result here. Slovenia will know that if they don’t win this one they will go into a tough game with England with no more than two points and needing something against the Three Lions to stay in the competition. That isn’t a favourable situation so I expect them to take some risks here.
Serbia have to be a lot more positive than they were against England. They won’t be out of the competition if they draw this game but it would mean the match against Denmark would be must win and that would be a huge pressure situation that they would want to avoid. We’ve seen this story play out for Serbia before. In the World Cup they opened up with a containing first approach against Brazil in their opening game and then they were involved in two wide open entertaining matches in their last two matches as they went about getting the points they needed to qualify. I expect something similar here so with both teams determined to score and then win I’ll play both teams to score here.
Tips
Back Both teams to score for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with William Hill
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