EURO 2024: Slovenia eyes first win against Serbia after draw
Slovenia eyes its first win in Euro 2024 against Serbia in Munich on Thursday after the former settled for a draw in its opening match.
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SLOVENIA EYES FIRST WIN AFTER DRAW AGAINST DENMARK
Slovenia eyes to notch its first win when it faces Serbia after the former settled to a 1-1 draw against Denmark on Monday.
Furthermore, Slovenia coach Matjaz Kek’s men are on a seven-match unbeaten streak that included a surprising 2-0 victory over Portugal in a friendly in March.
Interestingly, the last time the two teams in this stage was the last time they qualified – at Euro 2000.
At the time, Serbia – playing as Yugoslavia – rallied from three goals down to force a 3-3 draw.
Current Serbia coach Dragan Stojkovic was a substitute player during that match.
KEK EXPECTS SLOVENIA TO GROW ‘FROM MINUTE TO MINUTE’ IN EURO 2024
Kek, meanwhile, expects his players to grow “from minute to minute” during its Euro 2024 campaign.
“I believe this team will grow from minute to minute in these surroundings. It’s too optimistic to expect too much from this team,” Kek said.
“Many of my players have never played in such a big competition. When we saw something was possible (against Denmark), they started playing,” he added.
Furthermore, the coach wants his players to prove to themselves that they deserve to play in Euro 2024 more than anything else.
“All we want to achieve is a positive result and to prove that we deserve to be here, that we qualified for Germany on merit,” he said.
SERBIA ‘READY TO RESPOND’ TO CHALLENGE, SAYS STOJKOVIC
For his part, Stojkovic expects his team to be “ready to respond” to the challenge against Slovenia.
“Everyone’s motivated. They’re going to be fully ready to respond to the challenges that come with Slovenia,” the coach said.
“We all know what victory in this game will bring us,” he added.
Moreover, Serbia defender Nikola Milenkovic cited his team’s need to jump the gun on Slovenia to have a better chance of winning.
“How we start is important and we want to set the tone from the beginning,” Milenkovic said.
“We are the tallest team at the Euro and we need to be even more dangerous from set-pieces,” he added.
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