The Serbia national football team lost to Germany 2:0 in Munich in the third round of the Nations League. The goalscorers for the Germans were Tom Bischof in the 39th minute and Florian Wirtz in the 61st minute. This was Germany's first victory in this season's Nations League, and also the first under head coach Jürgen Klopp.
Germany outplayed Serbia, and the final 2-0 scoreline barely reflects how one-sided the match was. Germany had 74 per cent possession and 32 shots on target, of which eight were on target. Serbia managed only one shot on goal throughout the match. Serbia were bottom of their group in the competition and the worst in the elite A division of the UEFA Nations League. They had previously suffered home defeats to Greece and the Netherlands 2-1, and now have suffered a third defeat in the competition. At the bottom of the group, they have zero points and a goal difference of 2:6, four points behind the leaders. The two worst-placed teams in the A division will be relegated to League B, with Serbia currently the worst in the league alongside Turkey, who have a goal difference of 1:5.
The defeat in Munich could prove costly for Serbia in the race for Euro 2028. Already after the failures against Greece and the Netherlands, they slipped into the second pot for the qualification draw, and are now even further from returning to the first pot. If the distribution ends according to the current Nations League results, they would face Spain, France, Portugal, the Netherlands, Greece, England, Croatia, Norway, Belgium, Denmark, Italy and Germany from the first pot.
Serbia head coach Veljko Paunović did not hide his dissatisfaction after the match. "Certainly I cannot be satisfied, no one can. However, I think we need to continue working as we have until now, in the same direction. We lost, we move on, honestly I have little to say," Paunović said. He added that a change in mindset was needed: "We are like this in the Balkans. I do not know why we think we know better. We are always in a context of when and what will happen, always drama and tragedy. We are Serbia, a small country, we need time to establish a system that I cannot accelerate. What we must understand is: if we look at it from our perspective, we will not get anywhere. A very narrow perspective. What I have learned in less than a year is that we must change. First of all, our criteria, and unfortunately, there are few of us who have been, seen and worked elsewhere and been successful in it. When I come here, I come to help. I cannot give you anything other than the best. It is not just football that reflects training, the mindset is important. I am proud of the boys. I saw today: we are losing, but the young boys are chasing the Germans, wanting to bite them. I am looking for that. If I do not see that, then I will be angry."
Serbian media rated the performance as very poor. Telegraf wrote under the headline 'Serbia's worst match in recent years, Germany crushes the Eagles and pushes us into the abyss of the Nations League' that 'a gloomy September and October for the Serbia national team in the Nations League continued against Germany in the third round of the Nations League' and that 'from the first minute Serbia looked pale and powerless on the pitch'. In another article, they stated: 'The Eagles are pinned to the bottom, currently the worst in the league'.
The B lic s Stefan Kojić rated the 2-0 result as ideal given the events on the pitch, and that the defeat could have taken on catastrophic proportions. 'We did well in Munich. Football is not luck, not lottery, but we could have drawn this week. Fortunately, we did not, but these 2-0 are all, but not real,' Kojić wrote. He added: 'Statistics do not play anything, but they prove a lot. Especially when we want to look the truth in the eye, but we are deceiving ourselves about the national team. The famous xG was at zero on our side, which means that Tadić, Kostić, Živković and Jović did nothing in attack nor created a chance.' In the comment, it is stated: 'If this is a process, if it needs to hurt, then we could at least draw something new... Because everything we have seen so far, including the match against Germany, has been seen before. Being defeated by Germany, which is at the beginning of Klopp's idea, only shows where we are.'
The way Germany pressed the opponent deep in their half and practically did not allow them to come out, the match was reminiscent of the match against Curaçao at the World Cup, when Germany won 7-1. Against Curaçao, Germany converted a large number of chances into goals, while against Serbia, 32 shots resulted in only two goals. Serbia face a trip to Eindhoven against the Netherlands in the 4th round of the UEFA Nations League.
