The following is a match centre with betting tips for the 2018 FIFA World Cup Group E fixture between Serbia and Switzerland. The game kicks off on the 23rd of June at 4:00 AM AEST. It will be broadcast live by SBS, who now have the rights to all remaining group stage matches.
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Serbia
- FIFA World Rank: 34
- Elo Rating: 22
- Qualifying: Won Group D with a 6-3-1 record in the UEFA Confederation qualification.
Squad:
- Coach: Mladen Krstajić
- Goalkeepers: Vladimir Stojkovic (Partizan Belgrade), Predrag Rajkovic (Maccabi Tel Aviv), Marko Dmitrovic (Eibar)
- Defenders: Aleksandar Kolarov (AS Roma), Branislav Ivanovic (Zenit St. Petersburg), Dusko Tosic (Guangzhou R&F), Antonio Rukavina (Villarreal), Milos Veljkovic (Werder Bremen), Milan Rodic (Red Star Belgrade), Uros Spajic (Krasnodar), Nikola Milenkovic (Fiorentina)
- Midfielders: Nemanja Matic (Manchester United), Luka Milivojevic (Crystal Palace), Sergej Milinkovic-Savic (Lazio), Marko Grujic (Liverpool), Adem Ljajic (Torino), Dusan Tadic (Southampton), Filip Kostic (Hamburg SV), Andrija Zivkovic (Benfica), Nemanja Radonjic (Red
- Forwards: Aleksandar Mitrovic (Newcastle), Aleksandar Prijovic (PAOK), Luka Jovic (Benfica)
Recent results:
- Costa Rica 0 – 1 Serbia
17/06/2018
FIFA World Cup, played in Russia - Serbia 5 – 1 Bolivia
09/06/2018
Friendly, played in Austria - Serbia 0 – 1 Chile
04/06/2018
Friendly, played in Austria - Serbia 2 – 0 Nigeria
27/03/2018
Friendly, played in England - Serbia 1 – 2 Morocco
23/03/2018
Friendly, played in Italy - South Korea 1 – 1 Serbia
14/11/2017
Friendly, played in Korea Republic - China 0 – 2 Serbia
10/11/2017
Friendly, played in China - Serbia 1 – 0 Georgia
09/10/2017
WC qualifiers, played in Serbia - Austria 3 – 2 Serbia
06/10/2017
WC qualifiers, played in Austria - Ireland 0 – 1 Serbia
05/09/2017
WC qualifiers, played in Ireland - Serbia 3 – 0 Moldova
02/09/2017
WC qualifiers, played in Serbia - Serbia 1 – 1 Wales
11/06/2017
WC qualifiers, played in Serbia
Statistics: (last four years):
- H2H Record: 17-8-13
- O/U record
- O/U 0.5 record: 37-1
- O/U 1.5 record: 31-7
- O/U 2.5 record: 18-20
- O/U 3.5 record: 8-30
- O/U 4.5 record: 5-33
- O/U 5.5 record: 1-37
- Wins
- Total wins: 17
- Won by 1 goal: 7
- Won by 2 goals: 6
- Won by 3 goals: 3
- Won by 4 goals: 1
- Won by 5 goals: 0
- Won by 5+ goals: 0
- Won to nil 11
- Losses
- Total losses: 13
- Lost by 1 goal: 7
- Lost by 2 goals: 3
- Lost by 3 goals: 3
- Lost by 4 goals: 0
- Lost by 5 goals: 0
- Lost by 5+ goals: 0
- Lost to nil 6
- Clean Sheets and BTTS
- Total Games: 38
- Clean Sheets: 12
- Held Scoreless: 7
- Both Teams Scored: 20
Switzerland
- FIFA World Rank: 6
- Elo Rating: 14
- Qualifying: Runners up in Group B with a 9-0-1 record in the UEFA Confederation qualification. Defeated Northern Ireland 1-0 on aggregate in the UEFA Second Round playoffs.
Squad:
- Coach: Vladimir Petković (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
- Goalkeepers: Roman Buerki (Borussia Dortmund), Yvon Mvogo (RB Leipzig) and Yann Sommer (VfL Borussia M'gladbach)
- Defenders: Manuel Akanji (Borussia Dortmund), Johan Djourou (Antalyaspor AS), Nico Elvedi (Borussia M'gladbach), Michael Lang (FC Basel), Stephan Lichtsteiner (Juventus), Jacques-Francois Moubandje (Toulouse), Ricardo Rodriguez (AC Milan) and Fabian Schaer (Deportiv
- Midfielders: Valon Behrami (Udinese), Xherdan Shaqiri (Stoke City), Granit Xhaka (Arsenal), Blerim Dzemaili (Bologna), Gelson Fernandes (Eintracht Frankfurt), Remo Freuler (Atalanta), Denis Zakaria (Borussia M'gladbach) and Steven Zuber (Hoffenheim)
- Forwards: Josip Drmic (Borussia M'gladbach), Breel Embolo (Schalke, Mario Gavranovic(Dinamo Zagreb), Haris Seferovic (Benfica)
Recent results:
- Brazil 1 – 1 Switzerland
17/06/2018
FIFA World Cup, played in Russia - Switzerland 2 – 0 Japan
08/06/2018
Friendly, played in Switzerland - Spain 1 – 1 Switzerland
03/06/2018
Friendly, played in Spain - Switzerland 6 – 0 Panama
27/03/2018
Friendly, played in Switzerland - Greece 0 – 1 Switzerland
23/03/2018
Friendly, played in Greece - Switzerland 0 – 0 Northern Ireland
12/11/2017
WC qualifiers, played in Switzerland - Northern Ireland 0 – 1 Switzerland
09/11/2017
WC qualifiers, played in Northern Ireland - Portugal 2 – 0 Switzerland
10/10/2017
WC qualifiers, played in Portugal - Switzerland 5 – 2 Hungary
07/10/2017
WC qualifiers, played in Switzerland - Latvia 0 – 3 Switzerland
03/09/2017
WC qualifiers, played in Latvia - Switzerland 3 – 0 Andorra
31/08/2017
WC qualifiers, played in Switzerland - Faroe Islands 0 – 2 Switzerland
09/06/2017
WC qualifiers, played in Faroe Islands
Statistics: (last four years):
- H2H Record: 26-7-9
- O/U record
- O/U 0.5 record: 40-2
- O/U 1.5 record: 31-11
- O/U 2.5 record: 18-24
- O/U 3.5 record: 8-34
- O/U 4.5 record: 6-36
- O/U 5.5 record: 3-39
- Wins
- Total wins: 26
- Won by 1 goal: 12
- Won by 2 goals: 4
- Won by 3 goals: 6
- Won by 4 goals: 2
- Won by 5 goals: 0
- Won by 5+ goals: 2
- Won to nil 19
- Losses
- Total losses: 9
- Lost by 1 goal: 5
- Lost by 2 goals: 4
- Lost by 3 goals: 0
- Lost by 4 goals: 0
- Lost by 5 goals: 0
- Lost by 5+ goals: 0
- Lost to nil 7
- Clean Sheets and BTTS
- Total Games: 42
- Clean Sheets: 21
- Held Scoreless: 9
- Both Teams Scored: 14
Commentary
Serbia opened their World Cup campaign with a 1-0 win over Costa Rica. It was a scrappy, tight counter until Aleksandar Kolarov’s superb free kick in the 56th minute. After that Serbia looked very comfortable as Costa Rica failed to record another shot on target until the 91st minute. Serbia will know that a win against Switzerland would guarantee progression to the Round of 16, but on paper that won’t be easy against the 6th best team in the world.
Switzerland began their campaign with a 1-1 draw against the highly fancied Brazil. They had to come from behind to do so, which is a great result with fixtures against the less fancied Serbia and Costa Rica coming up. Switzerland have now lost just 1 of their last 23 fixtures (16-6-1 record), with their sole defeat coming against Portugal during qualifying.
Betting
bet365 odds (subject to change):
Compare the latest bookmaker odds for Serbia vs. Switzerland
Both sides will know that a defeat will put their campaign severely on the back foot, while a draw probably won’t be the end of the world. For this reason I’m expecting a low scoring, cagey affair, with neither side wanting to open themselves up too much. An interesting stat for Switzerland is they have kept a clean sheet in the first half in 15 of their last 18 fixtures, while they scored first half goals of their own in just 2 of their last 8 games. Given Switzerland’s impressive run of just 1 defeat in 23 fixtures, I fancy them at +0.5 in the Asian Handicap market at 1.54 (Betfair). Under 2.5 goals at 1.56 (Betfair) also appeals, given the majority of Switzerland’s recent fixtures against sides ranked 30 or better went under this total. With both sides probably looking to keep things tight, and Switzerland’s penchant for scoreless first halves, I will also opt for under 0.5 in the first half market at 2.43 (Unibet).
Notes
- FIFA World rankings are from the 7th of June and sourced from https://www.fifa.com/fifa-world-ranking/ranking-table/men/index.html
- The World Football Elo Ratings are from the 11th of June and are based on the Elo rating system, developed by Dr. Arpad Elo. This system is used by the international chess federation to rate chess players and is considered by many to be a superior rating tool to the one used by FIFA. The ratings have been sourced from https://www.eloratings.net/.
- Squad lists sourced from http://www.skysports.com/football/news/12098/11374464/every-world-cup-squad-listed-argentina-brazil-russia-and-more