The Path C Final for a place in next year’s European Championship features the clash between Serbia and Scotland at the Stadion Rajko Mitić in Belgrade and although Serbia have gained just the one win out of their last six matches overall, the hosts hold home advantage here.
Serbia reached this Final play-off thanks to a 2-1 win in extra-time away at Norway to book this date with Scotland, and although they’ve suffered recent defeats to Russia and Hungary, these were inflicted upon the hosts in the less important Nations League competition.
👏 https://t.co/OG95GIw1Wt— Scotland National Team (@ScotlandNT) November 9, 2020
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Results on home soil have been pretty steady for Serbia as the hosts have lost just two out of their last 10 matches in all competitions, while also picking up five wins in the shape of victories over Montenegro, Lithuania (twice), Paraguay and Luxembourg along with holding Romania, Ukraine and Turkey to draws.
Overall results in Euro qualifiers at home have seen Serbia lose just five out of a total of 24 ties while their only previous meeting at home against Scotland resulted in a 2-0 win for the Serbs in a World Cup qualifier back in 2013.
Onto Scotland and the visitors bring an impressive recent run of results into this crucial clash in Belgrade having put together an unbeaten sequence of eight matches in all competitions, winning seven of these.
This decent set of results include victories in the Euro qualifiers over San Marino, Cyprus and Kazakhstan and then secured their path through to this Final play-off with Serbia by virtue of overcoming Israel in a penalty shoot-out in the play-off semi-final last month.
However, although Scotland have captured recent back-to-back wins on their travels away at Cyprus in the Euro qualifiers and a victory at Czech Republic in the Nations League, both by 2-1 margins, the Scots possess an inconsistent run of results on their travels generally speaking.
Scotland’s last 10 matches away from home have resulted in four wins but also six defeats, with two of these four wins being registered against European minnow nations, Albania and San Marino.
Having also failed to score in five of these last 10 away from home and keeping just two clean sheets in reply, this could be a tough final hurdle for Steve Clarke and his side, and one they could fall at on Thursday night.