Serbia vs Slovenia Prediction: Eagles to get the first win in the tournament

On June 5, Rajko Mitic Stadium in Belgrade will host a second-round match of the UEFA Nations League, with the teams of Serbia and Slovenia facing each other at 21:45 (UTC+3).

The Serbian national team is preparing to participate in their first World Championship. Never before have the Eagles been selected for the world championships, and now they managed to do it by overtaking the Portuguese team in the qualifying tournament. In celebration of this triumph, Dragan Stojkovic's charges smashed Hungary in a friendly game, 1-0, but the Serbs' exploits are over for now. Back in spring, they lost a test game to Denmark (0-3), and they got off to an unsuccessful start in another round of the UEFA Nations League, losing to Norway 0-1. It is obvious it's time for the Serbian national team to improve, otherwise the long-awaited World Cup 2022 will be over for them very soon.

The Slovenian national team is gradually forgetting how to play in major international tournaments. The last time they qualified for such an event was in 2010, but their great success ended there. Qualification for the FIFA World Cup 2022 also ended badly for the White and Greens as they took only fourth place in their group. Now the UEFA Euro 2024 qualifier awaits Matjaz Kek's side that will get a further chance to qualify for the continental championships with the UEFA Nations League. But even here Slovenia started off with a 0-2 defeat at the hands of Sweden.

Throughout history, the teams have played three head-to-head encounters. In 2004, they played a friendly game that ended in a 1-1 draw. Twice more the opponents played in the qualifying for UEFA Euro 2012: the first game ended in a 1-1 draw, while the Slovenian national team players proved stronger in the second leg, 1-0.

The teams of Serbia and Slovenia approach their encounter in a completely different mood. If the hosts are looking forward to a trip to Qatar for the 2022 World Cup, the visitors look a little hopeless as they can't boast any decent results for a long time. Of course, even now the clear favorites of the meeting are the Eagles, who have a much more powerful and skillful squad, so we cannot but bet on the Serbian team to win the match with a handicap of -1.5 for odds of about 2.30.

The Serbian national team has a great selection of players in the attacking group, and we saw their productivity in the World Cup 2022 qualifying, where the Eagles scored 18 goals in eight games (2.25 goals per game on average) which is very respectable. While the Serbs didn't score any goals in the opening round of the current UEFA Nations League, we certainly shouldn't expect them to play two offensively unsuccessful games in a row. In addition, the Slovene defense is far from being the most reliable. With this in mind, the best option seems Serbia's individual total over 1.5 goals at odds close to 1.70.

Dušan Tadić returned to the Dutch league four years ago after an assignment in the EPL. It seemed that his career would gradually go downhill from there, but in fact, he had four phenomenal seasons for Ajax. Last year he scored 13 goals and 19 assists in 34 league games and was one of the top scorers there. He also averaged one assist per game in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers, with two goals and six assists in eight games. In such a situation it is worth considering betting on Dušan Tadić's goal at odds of about 2.65.

Our prediction: Handicap Serbia (-1.5) at odds of 2.30 at Bet365.

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