Serbia vs England Prediction: A dicey game with BTTS and many corners expected

At the UEFA European Championship group stage at Arena AufSchalke on Sunday, England, who is now riding high, will have the chance to extend their winning streak to nine games. This is both teams' inaugural international cup encounter. After losing in the Group Stage of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, Serbia is making its first continental tournament appearance. Falling short against France in the quarterfinals, England is making its first continental participation since the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. In their final meeting, which took place in June 2003, England came out on top 2-1.

In the last ten games, the home team has scored goals, while the visitors have scored goals in 11 straight games across all competitions. Both sides have recently found success in the final third. Serbia has won two, drawn two, and lost two of their past six games playing. During that time, they won four of the six games and let up nine, scoring first in each. The first half saw the most of their goals, seven in all. The last six for England have seen four wins and two draws. They led in three of the six games while scoring 18 and giving up three throughout that time. Prior to halftime, their opponents scored three goals, while they scored nine in the first half.

Having never before qualified for the quadrennial continental conference as an independent entity, Serbia is making a sort of debut at this year's edition. With just four wins from their eight games, the Eagles' 14-point total was good for a runners-up place behind Hungary. They were led by head coach Dragan Stojkovic, who is considered one of the greatest talents to ever don the Serbian strip. Serbia ended a 24-year ban from the Euros after Yugoslavia's 2000 run to the quarterfinals with a pair of defeats to the Hungarians, a double against Lithuania and Montenegro, and two draws with Bulgaria. At least their results in the preliminary section followed a consistent pattern.

Serbia's final third is full of well-known players, such as Dusan Vlahovic of Juventus, Tadic of Ajax, and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic and Aleksandar Mitrovic of Al-Hilal. However, their recent performance has been lacklustre, as they have only won four of their last 11 games. But two of those victories have come in their last three friendlies—overcoming Cyprus 1-0 and defeating Sweden thrice before losing to Austria by a narrow margin—and England's unremarkable June exploits should give Stojkovic's team hope that they can dampen the Three Lions' hopes of winning football.

Less than three full years have gone by since the country was swept into euphoria on that fateful Wembley day, when Luke Shaw's neat back-post volley launched England on their way to much-needed European triumph before the Italian old guard dealt more heartbreaking penalties to the distraught hosts. Gareth Southgate continues to give orders from the England touchline despite fresh criticism of his tactical approach and some brief talk of interest from Manchester United, which has since subsided. Southgate guided his team through an undefeated qualification period following an all too familiar England World Cup quarterfinal exit.

The Three Lions may have had their pre-tournament favourites label torn off them if recent exploits are anything to go by, as Southgate has masterminded just one win from five. England's six preliminary victories included two revenge victories over reigning champions Italy. Even that victory, a 3-0 victory against Bosnia-Herzegovina, was dull until the hour mark. More anguish for Iceland was to come in the form of a 1-0 defeat at Wembley to their Euro 2016 conquerors when ninety minutes of huffing and puffing were for nothing because of a terrible lack of killing instinct.

In contrast to certain rivals for Euro 2024, Serbia emerged from the June pre-season physically unharmed and with every key player available, which presents Stojkovic with the ideal selection conundrum in the last third. The Eagles manager has a history of not starting both Vlahovic and Mitrovic up top, and he may continue to do so in this game. Tadic, who has 108 appearances all-time for Serbia, will be able to return to the attacking third. Nemanja Maksimovic might be able to go back to the engine room, while Milos Veljkovic of Werder Bremen might go back to the three-man defensive line in front of Vanja Milinkovic-Savic or Predrag Rajkovic. 

Regarding England, Southgate seems to have escaped a health crisis involving star defender John Stones, who was also hurt in the loss to Iceland and was effectively isolated to his bedroom before returning to regular training. As a result, Kieran Trippier will continue to hold down the left midfield position for Southgate. Luke Shaw, who has fully recovered from a muscular injury but won't be risked just yet, should be the lone player missing for Sunday's opening.

We expect Jordan Pickford's goal to be broken at least once at the Veltins-Arena. A third of Serbia's qualification goals came from headers, the greatest ratio of all of the 24 teams at Euro 2024. Additionally, England will be without Harry Maguire, their aerial threat.

Hence, BTTS is expected and England likely to win.