LONDON, Nov 11 — Serbia’s all-time top scorer Aleksandar Mitrovic, who is nursing an ankle injury, was named by coach Dragan Stojkovic in their 26-man squad for the World Cup in Qatar today.
Fulham striker Mitrovic, who missed their Premier League defeat to Manchester City last weekend and is a doubt for Sunday’s game against Manchester United, has bagged 50 goals for his country and is in the squad along with Juventus striker Dusan Vlahovic.
The duo, who have scored 17 goals between them for their clubs this season, are expected to lead the line for Serbia at the November 20-December 18 tournament with Fiorentina’s 24-year-old Luka Jovic waiting in the wings.
Serbia will be captained by Ajax Amsterdam’s Dusan Tadic, who has 90 caps for the national team, scoring 18 times.
Their midfield will also be led by Lazio’s versatile Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, who has six goals in 35 appearances for the national team.
Predrag Rajkovic is the most experienced goalkeeper in the squad but Torino’s Vanja Milinkovic-Savic, who has six caps, started in four of their six Nations League matches earlier this year.
Serbia are in Group G alongside Brazil, Switzerland and Cameroon. Serbia, who have never moved past the group stages, take on five-times champions Brazil in their opening group game on November 24.
They will first play a friendly match with Bahrain in Manama on November 18 before flying to their base in Doha a day later.
Squad:
Goalkeepers: Marko Dmitrovic, Predrag Rajkovic, Vanja Milinkovic-Savic
Defenders: Stefan Mitrovic, Nikola Milenkovic, Strahinja Pavlovic, Milos Veljkovic, Filip Mladenovic, Strahinja Erakovic, Srdjan Babic
Midfielders: Nemanja Gudelj, Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, Sasa Lukic, Marko Grujic, Filip Kostic, Uros Racic, Nemanja Maksimovic, Ivan Ilic, Andrija Zivkovic, Darko Lazovic
Forwards: Dusan Tadic (captain), Aleksandar Mitrovic, Dusan Vlahovic, Filip Duricic, Luka Jovic, Nemanja Radonjic — Reuters