Serbia vs. England: Euro 2024 Odds, Prediction
-
Edgar Chaput
Serbia and England are two sides entering the competition with vastly different hopes and dreams. For Serbia, winning it all would indeed be quite a remarkable dream. In England’s case, coronation at Euro 2024 would lay to rest decades of disappointment during which the country always brings a good lineup to a tournament, only to leave disappointed.
Our Euro 2024 odds have England as -225 favourites to win, with Serbia lagging far behind at +600. A draw is pinned at +340.
Serbia vs. England Betting Odds
Regardless of Serbia’s political status and name, they have only played the English once in all-time. It was in 2003 when the nation was still known as Serbia and Montenegro and finished in a 2-1 defeat in a friendly.
One supposes that with so many political and societal shifts, it’s difficult to expect a side like Serbia to deliver historically significant results with regularity. At the moment FIFA ranks them 33rd, which seems fair enough. To their credit, they have played decent football lately, collecting wins over Sweden (3-0) and Cyprus (1-0). However, they also suffered defeats to Russia (4-0) and Austria (2-1).
England have a knack for preparing poorly for tournaments under Gareth Southgate and the same doubts have crept in again over the last few months. There was the uninspired 1-0 loss at home to Brazil during the March break, a 2-2 draw to Belgium that same month, a 3-0 win over easy prey Bosnia and Herzegovina, and a frustrating 1-0 defeat to Iceland.
Serbia
As alluded to in the previous section, expectations can only be so high with Serbia. After all, their best finishes at World Cups were in the 1930s and 1960s (fourth place twice) and as runners-up at the European championships of 1960 and 1968. The parents of the players on the current squad were infants, if that.
So can the Orlovi (Eagles) soar? Coach Dragan Stojkovic has led the side since 2021 after a poor showing at the 2020 Euros against Scotland. To his credit, he led the side to Qatar 2022, but as fate would have it, they were nestled into the same group as Brazil, Switzerland, and Cameroon. But it was by no means a disaster. A 2-0 loss to Brazil was followed by a captivating 3-3 draw against the Cameroonians and narrow 3-2 defeat to the Swiss.
In fairness, it’s not as though they have nothing to show for themselves up front. Aleksandar Mitrovic, Luka Jovic, and Dusan Vlahovic are all quite capable of producing damage given good balls, which both Ivan Ilic and Filip Kostic can deliver.
England
It’s time to bring up 1966 again. To be completely honest, it’s not even meant as a dig at the English. They do it themselves and one supposes that comes with the territory of perennially arriving at competitions with lofty goals and never anything to show for it.
Do they arrive with strong rosters? Of course, they do. Are they doing so again at Euro 2024? Absolutely. If they play up to their full capacity and things go their way, England can indeed win this tournament. But it’s so easy to bring up memories like Euro 2020 when a final was at Wembley and they started so brightly against Italy, only to lose on penalties.
Harry Kane, Bukayo Saka, Phil Foden, Ollie Watkins, Declan Rice, Jude Bellingham, Joe Gomez, Kyle Walker, etc. Will England finally bring something home, or will this generation join the likes of Beckham, Rooney, Gerrard, and Terry who probably should have, but didn’t?