Fans explode and demand dismissal, Serbia coach: We have the competition with Albania

2025-09-10 18:28:00, Sport CNA

Fans explode and demand dismissal, Serbia coach: We have the competition with

Serbia suffered a crushing 5-0 defeat to England in Belgrade, piling pressure on coach Dragan Stojkovic. After the match, fans booed him, while the coach admitted the result was a reflection of reality.

Stojkovic stressed that Serbia cannot compete with teams like England or Germany, but the goal remains second place. The main rival for this objective, according to him, is Albania. The coach demanded maximum concentration in the upcoming matches and more seriousness from the team.

"It's a very difficult night for us and a difficult defeat, but when you have an opponent like England tonight, you have to understand and accept that they are better in all segments - speed, physicality, technique, individual quality. The epilogue of that is the result. What is most important, this is the absolute reality, where we are and who we are in relation to them. They belong to the cream of world and European football and they are not by chance the European runners-up. You are simply helpless against such a team, it turned out that they deservedly dominated, scored goals. Plus, if you get a red card, then the defeat is even more convincing. We didn't deserve anything better, we couldn't have done anything.

What we saw tonight is completely real, like Spain destroying Turkey the other day with 6:0, that's that category. Do you know what scared me the most? The physical preparation of our players. We have a lot of problems, they don't play regularly, they're not in rhythm, in shape. The English are a much better quality team, on an individual level they play difficult and demanding matches in the matches from Wednesday to Saturday, and I see our players that we are slow, that we can't cope physically. The opponent can play better, but on that field, it's hard for me to lose, but the reality is that we don't belong to this group, including Germany.

"It's just like that, let's wake up at the right time, let's take it much more seriously and yes, it will be better than tonight, with all due respect to this England team. Let me also mention this, when the qualifications started, we knew that our main rival would be Albania for second place, that England were the absolute favorites, no matter how much someone didn't believe, they were wrong. They are another dimension of football. Our goal remains the same, to win the other games, to reach the number two position, and that will then be the realistic view of our representative football", were the words of Stojkovic after the match.