Montenegro and Serbia’s historic meeting, unhappy memories for England and the Republic of Ireland, and Georgi Petkov’s international return – at 42
Twelve years after Montenegro achieved independence and 11 years after they were formally recognised by Fifa, they meet Serbia for the first time. The match is, according to goalkeeper Danijel Petkovic, the biggest in the nation’s history. After two games the teams are level on points at the top of Group C4, adding competitive edge to an already spicy encounter. Serbia are far from full strength: Crystal Palace’s Luka Milivojevic is one of several players to have dropped out of the squad since the World Cup after falling out with the manager, Mladen Krstajic, while the captain, Nemanja Matic, is injured. “Our ambitions remain the same,” said Krstajic, who revealed: “Matic will most likely come to Podgorica to see us because his boss is coming.” Given that José Mourinho cannot be monitoring Matic’s performance it has heightened speculation about a possible move for one of Serbia’s young stars, the Fiorentina defender Nikola Milenkovic and the Lazio midfielder Sergej Milinkovic-Savic. SB
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