Serbia isn’t exactly going into the World Cup with high expectations — no one will confuse the squad with heavyweights such as France, Germany or Brazil. But what the Eagles did to Bolivia on Saturday in their final World Cup warm-up match shows they won’t be an easy out in Russia. The match served as a Serbia World Cup preview of sorts, with the team eviscerating Bolivia 5-1.
Bolivia was coming off a 0-0 draw with World Cup participant South Korea on Thursday. Though, to be fair, Bolivia was also crushed 3-0 by the non-qualified United States a week earlier.
Serbia lost 1-0 to Chile on June 4 while also beating Nigeria 2-0 and losing to Morocco 2-1 in other friendlies this year.
Aleksandar Mitrović, who led UEFA Group D with six goals in World Cup qualifying, blasted home a hat trick on Saturday. The Newcastle United striker’s best goal was this wonderful strike from range that nestled beautifully into the top right corner.
Mitrovic hat trick goal vs Bolivia.. #NUFC pic.twitter.com/D5AyaSS3vg
— NUFCThreatLevel (@NUFCThreatLevel) June 9, 2018
Mitrović became the first Serbian to score a hat trick for his national team since the country began competing as its own nation in 2006.
While Mitrović’s goal was wonderful, the strike that really showed Serbia’s quality (or perhaps Bolivia’s ambivalence) came from former Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanović. The only Serbian on the World Cup roster with more than 100 caps finished off a crazy sequence that included five players taking a total of six touches, none consecutively.
Ivanovic goal was mad pic.twitter.com/zUV8fkni40
— Marko BC (@Sxrbian) June 9, 2018
Serbia has its work cut out for it in Group E. Brazil is the clear favorite and Costa Rica and Switzerland are no slouches. But if the Bolivia match was any sort of Serbia World Cup preview, the Eagles could be one of the two teams left standing after the group stage.
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